MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa — For the better part of 40 minutes, the Robert Morris Colonials and Lake Superior State Lakers were held captive by goaltenders, crossbars, and posts as they completed their weekend series Saturday night at 84 Lumber Arena. However, with just over five minutes to go in the second frame, Scott Jacklin provided the only goal the Colonials would need as they seized the momentum over the remainder of the contest en route to a 3-0 victory.
“I thought we got much better in the second and third tonight,” Colonials coach Derek Schooley said. “We were in a turnover-filled hockey game in the first period, and we learned, and once we extended the lead to two goals, I think we dominated that third period.”
The teams managed 11 shots each in the first period, which saw several close shots striking iron. Neither team managed to dominate territory in the early going, as Colonials netminder Dalton Izyk, making his first career home start, and Lakers goaltender Gordon Dalfiel both made some key saves to keep the score sheet clean through one period.
The Colonials then opened the second period with a flurry of shots and scoring chances as the action stayed in the Lakers end for large stretches of the middle frame. Robert Morris tallied 16 second period shots, but there was little in the way second-chance scoring opportunities, as Dalfiel continued to smother any potential rebounds when they weren’t being cleared by an alert Lakers defense.
At the 18:46 mark, Jacklin broke open the scoring with his second goal of the weekend. The power-play goal was made possible by a key play from Cody Wydo, who had made a great play to keep the puck from exiting the Lakers zone while getting it to Zac Lynch with the same motion. Lynch put the puck on net, where Dalfiel gave up a rebound which Jacklin pushed into the net to give the Colonials the lead going into the final stanza.
The Colonials took advantage of their opportunities in the third period while keeping the Lakers from mounting any consistent pressure over the remainder of the game. Colonials captain and last season’s leading scorer Cody Wydo notched his first marker of the season to put his team up by two at the 5:33 mark of the third when he put home a rebound from defenseman Evan Moore’s original shot. David Friedmann closed out the scoring at 14:52 when he beat Dalfiel with a shot from close range.
“We’ve set lofty goals for this team, and if you want to reach lofty goals, you’ve got to learn and get better and you’ve got to improve and I think we did that, especially tonight after a sluggish first period,” Schooley said. “We’ve got a lot of depth and you saw that come through. If your compete level is high at the beginning of the year, you’re going to have success and our compete level was outstanding tonight. We made some mistakes, but we made up for it with our compete level.”
The Lakers leave Pittsburgh with no points on the weekend, but first-year coach Damon Whitten indicated there were some positives.
“There were some good things we can take out of this weekend, more so last night than tonight,” Whitten said. “We’ve still got to get stronger around the offensive net and bear down. They (Robert Morris) have a lot of experience and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I thought they played hard and strong and we’ve got to learn from it because our schedule doesn’t get any easier from here on out.”
