Men's Hockey | 11/19/2015 10:57:00 AM

College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:

Moon Township, Pa. – They more or less split the net down the middle last season and that was by design.

The plan this season was to go with the hot goaltender more than it was the same type of rotation, but Dalton Izyk and Terry Shafer have ended up splitting the net again, anyway.
Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley isn't sweating it.

"Last season was one of our best years in the program's history and both of those guys were a big reason why," Schooley explained. "They both deserved to play at the start of this season and Dalton has been outstanding and Terry has played well.

"So I've stuck with going with one and then the other."

That may or may not continue when the Colonials resume play this weekend at Army. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Robert Morris is 4-2-2 overall and 3-1-2 in Atlantic Hockey Conference play. Army is 1-5-2 overall and 0-4-2 in conference.

Izyk, a junior, is 3-0-1 this season with a 1.33 goals against average and a .958 save percentage.

Shafer, a senior, is 1-2-1 with a 3.24 goals against average and a .901 save percentage.

But numbers alone don't tell the entire story.

Shafer was in net for a 5-3 loss, Oct. 30, at No. 10 Michigan and Izyk authored the Colonials' 4-0 shutout of the Wolverines the following night. But Shafer made 42 saves, many of the spectacular variety, to Izyk's 34, and the coaching staff wasn't convinced afterward that Shafer hadn't played the better game on the weekend.

Of this much regarding the two the coaches are certain: Both have earned the staff's appreciation and the staff's respect.

"Dalton makes it look easy," Schooley assessed. "Terry's a battler. Dalton's more technical and will be there anticipating things. Terry will find a way to get there and battle his way there."

Izyk went 15-5-0 with a 2.58 goals against average and a .923 save percentage last season.

Shafer was 9-3-4, 2.15, .930.

Shafer (25-22-10) has more career victories than Izyk (23-7-1) but Izyk has the higher career winning percentage (.758 to .526).

"Last year at the end we decided to go with Dalton and he only played back-to-back games once leading into the playoffs," Schooley explained.

And the playoffs didn't end the way the Colonials had intended.

They swept Niagara, 4-2 and 6-3, in a second-round series at home but lost to Mercyhurst, 4-3 in overtime, in the AHC semifinals, March 20, in Rochester, N.Y.

The game-winning goal in the Mercyhurst game was scored on a shot that didn't appear threatening until it somehow eluded Izyk and entered the net.

In the aftermath, Schooley began to re-evaluate the merits of a regular rotation in goal.

In the end he initially decided that this season he would "go off a little more of a gut (feeling) and keep them battling a little bit keep them competing," Schooley said. "I don't want them to get complacent, 'OK, you're playing Friday, you go get 'em, and I'm playing Saturday, I'll go get 'em.' You want to go with a guy that gets hot. And when a guy gets hot and is playing well you want to run him out there until he's not hot."

It hasn't worked out that way so far but that doesn't mean it won't eventually, either in this weekend's Army series or down the road.

"They're both good goalies," Schooley said.

So either way the Colonials' net figures to be well defended. 

Tweet #ColonialPride