The Robert Morris Colonials were given a challenge by coach Derek Schooley following their 5-4 overtime win Friday night, and they responded. The Colonials gave a strong performance that saw 15 players make the final score sheet. That, combined with an improved attention to detail and also some very critical second period saves from goaltender Dalton Izyk, proved to be the difference as Robert Morris downed the visiting Sacred Heart Pioneers for a second straight evening.
“Once Sacred Heart Scored that first goal, I thought we kicked it into high gear,” Schooley remarked. “We had a really good first period tonight, we had some tremendous chances that Bodnarchuk was making some very good saves on. We really pushed the accelerator down and went in the second and I thought our guys did a really good job getting to the net and being opportunistic. I challenged our team to play the game the right way, and we did for the most part.”
The Pioneers got on the board first at 6:32 of the opening period when Jordan Minello deflected a Jacob Brightbill shot past Colonials netminder Dalton Izyk.
Following the opening tally, the Colonials went to work winning loose puck battles in all three zones, and converting that to good scoring chances. Matt Cope put the Colonials on the board a few moments later when he banged home a bouncing puck in the slot that Pioneers goaltender Andrew Bodnarchuk could not glove, with assists going to Greg Gibson and Brandon Denham. Colonials forward David Friedmann than added his seventh goal of the season less than two minutes later to give his side a lead that they never relinquished.
The first 20 minutes may have seen the Colonials dominate the shot count, but their second period proved lethal to the Pioneers on the scoreboard, as five different Robert Morris forwards scored. Denham opened the second period onslaught with a power-play tally at 2:16 and was followed by a power-play goal by Friedmann, who beat Bodnarchuk with a backhander from close range at the 8:24 mark.
The goal chased Bodnarchuk from the net, as coach CJ Marottolo opted for Alex Vazzano in an attempt to give his team a lift, and it worked fairly quickly, as Justin Danforth took a pass from a faceoff win and slid it through Izyk’s open five-hole to cut the Colonials lead in half.
That was as close as the Pioneers could get. The Colonials offensive attack went undaunted and rattled off three more goals in the final half of the second period as Brady Ferguson, David Rigatti, and leading scorer Cody Wydo all got in on the act with goals.
The third period saw less scoring, as Scott Jacklin put home a rebound from a Zac Lynch shot at 7:00 to give the Colonials their eighth and final goal. The Pioneers were able to add two quick goals in the closing moments, courtesy of Alec Butcher and Brian Sheehan to tighten up the score, but in the end, the night belonged to the Colonials, who tallied 47 shots for the game.
“We just didn’t have it tonight,” Marottolo said. “I thought we were back in it when we got it to 4-2, but then they scored a minute later and that was that. We’re going to move on from it and our focus now shifts to Dartmouth.”
