Robert Morris (14-12-3 / 9-5-2 CHA) vs. Niagara (17-9-4 / 9-5-2 CHA)

Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 ~ 7:05 p.m.

Saturday, March 1, 2008 ~ 7:05 p.m.

Niagara University, N.Y. ~ Dwyer Arena (2,100)

Opening Remarks: The Robert Morris University men’s ice hockey team travels to Niagara University, winners of four of its last five, for a pair of games with the Purple Eagles this weekend. Both teams enter the weekend tied for second place in College Hockey America with a 9-5-2 record and 20 points, five points behind conference leading Bemidji State.

Quick Stat of the Night: Ryan Cruthers is currently riding a seven game point streak and has tallied 13 points over that span, including two points in six of those seven games. He also has been held off the score sheet only six games this season with three of those games coming on the road. Cruthers has tallied two or more points on 16 occasions, eight times on the road and has 22 of his 44 points on the road.

Lighting the Lamp: Robert Morris has outscored its opponents 68-23 in its 14 victories and has been outscored 19-67 in its 12 losses. There other 15 goals, for and against, of the season came against Ohio State in a 5-5 tie, Ala.-Huntsville in a 4-4 tie and Bemidji State in a 2-2 tie.

Top of the Shop: The Colonials high flying offense has two team members parked atop the leader board in the College Hockey America scoring race. Senior Ryan Cruthers leads the league with 44 points (19 goals / 25 assists) and junior Chris Margott ranks second with 38 points (14 goals/ 24 assists). Cruthers’ 19 goals and 25 assists also top the conference. Margott has the edge with a CHA high 16 power-play points, while Cruthers has 15.

Leading the Nation: Ryan Cruthers leads the nation with 1.52 points per game and is tied for second with 44 points with Boston College’s Nathan Gerbe and St. Cloud State’s Ryan Lasch. Michigan’s Kevin Porter leads the nation with 51 points.

The Series: The Colonials own an all-time record of 7-11-2 against the Purple Eagles and are 2-2 this season. RMU last traveled to Niagara for a weekend series on Nov. 11-12, splitting the pair of games. The two clubs have matched up for a pair of series’ this season with Niagara taking game one of the series both times and then RMU taking game two both times. RMU defeated Niagara, 7-2, with Brett Hopfe recording three points with one goal and two assists. Chris Margott scored two goals, while Ryan Cruthers dished out a pair of assists.

Special Teams Are the Key: Through 29 games this season the Colonials are converting at 18.5% (29-of-157) on the power-play, while killing off 78.8% (126-of-160) of their penalties.

100 Point Club: With his 16th assist of the season, on the Colonials final goal against Niagara on Saturday, Jan. 12 senior Ryan Cruthers became the first player in Colonial history to tally 100 career points. Over his four-year career, he tallied 34 points at Army during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons. Cruthers recorded 37 points last season, his first as a Colonial and currently has 44 points this season for a total of 81 points as a Colonial. He currently has 115 career points.

Record Chasing: Senior Ryan Cruthers has set new RMU single-season highs already this season for points (44) and goals (19). He also tied Aaron Clarke’s mark of 25 assists in a season last Saturday against Bemidji State.

Junior Chris Margott currently holds the RMU career record for points (86), goals (39) and is one assist shy of tying Doug Conley for the all-time lead in assists with 48.

Margott is also on pace to become the first four-year RMU player to surpass the 100-point mark. He currently has 86 points in under three years of action.

The Magic of Four: Four has been a magic number for the Colonials in their first three-plus seasons of Division I hockey. As in scoring at least four and giving up less than four. When the Colonials reach four goals, they are 33-8-5 (.772) all-time. If they hold opponents to less than four goals, the are 41-19-8 (.662). On the other side of the coin, when RMU scores less than four, they are just 6-47-2 (.127). When opponents score four of more, the Colonials are just 3-50-4 (.088).

Talking About the Road: Robert Morris is 22-41-5 on the road all-time including 7-6-2 this season. They went 6-12-1 in 2006-07, 4-12-1 in 2005-06 and 5-11-1 in 2004-05. RMU never went more than three-games during the 2006-07 season with out picking up a victory on the road, a vast improvement over the 12-game road winless streak during the 2005-06 season that ended with a 3-2 win at Air Force (2/24/06). The Colonials will play 20 games away from the RMU Island Sports Center this coming season, including three neutral site games against Boston University, Wayne State and Ohio State.

Friday, Friday, Friday: The only day of the week last season RMU held a winning record on was Friday. The Colonials finished with an overall record of 6-5-1 on Friday’s. So far in the 2007-08 season, RMU is 5-5-2 on Friday, defeating Boston University (10/12), Wayne State (10/26 and 2/8) and American International (1/4).

Saturday It Is: Last season "it" was Friday, this season "it" is Saturday - as in the only day the Colonials are over the .500 mark. So far this season RMU is 7-5-0 on Saturday’s. All-time however, RMU is 23-32-3 on Saturday’s.

February Equals Victory: All-time in the month of February, the Colonials own a record of 14-12-2, including a 4-2-0 mark this season. Sitting a pair of games over .500, February is the only month of the year that RMU has more wins than losses.

Splitting the CHA: So far during the 2007-08 season, the Colonials are 2-for-8 in sweeping conference weekend series’. They swept Wayne State on Oct. 26-27 and Feb. 8-9. The Colonials played 10 weekend series’ against CHA foes last season, coming away with only two sweeps, against Niagara and Bemidji State in consecutive weekends.

Keeping It Close: After three plus seasons, the Colonials have played in 35 one-goal games. They are 16-19 in those games, including 3-1 this season. Robert Morris finished the 2006-07 season with nine one-goal games and were 4-5 in those contests.