Perhaps the youngest and the oldest teams in college hockey squared off at 84 Lumber Arena, as the Robert Morris Colonials opened their regular season with 5-1 victory on Friday night over the visiting Air Force Falcons. Although the efforts were similar, the difference in experience levels assisted in the determining the outcome.
The Colonials got goals from five different players and used timely saves from goaltender Dalton Izyk en route to the Atlantic Hockey victory.
“It was a gritty win tonight, it was gutsy,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “Our goaltending was outstanding, Dalton Izyk made a huge save when it was 2-0 right before we scored those two goals in the third that propelled us back the other way. There wasn’t much to dislike except for when we got a little sloppy at times, but for our first game it was pretty good. Our older guys have to carry this team and they did that tonight. Air Force is a good hockey team; they played hard and gave us all we could handle.”
From the drop of the puck, both sides established a physical tone that lasted throughout the game, as bone-jarring hits and intense battles for the puck became commonplace on seemingly every shift. However, both teams spent the first half of the first period attempting to get some type of consistent offensive zone pressure.
The Colonials opened the scoring when Brandon Denham got rewarded for a hard-working shift as he found himself the recipient of a rebound near the crease that he shot past starting Falcons goaltender Billy Christopoulos at the 11:30 mark of the first period.
When the second period opened, the Colonials started opening up the attack, producing odd man rushes with regularity. At the 8:45 mark, with both teams a man down, defenseman Tyson Wilson sent a perfect pass onto the stick of forward Greg Gibson in the neutral zone that Gibson turned into a breakaway. Once in all alone on Christopoulos, Gibson released a wrist shot from the slot that found the back of the cage to put the Colonials out front by two goals.
Air Force then went to work and managed to tilt the ice in the second half of the period, as the Falcons tested Izyk with the bulk of their 15 shots for the period. However, Izyk held his ground and kept the Falcons off the scoreboard through 40 minutes of play.
As the third period opened, the Falcons carried the momentum over with several point-blank scoring chances, including a golden opportunity from forward Ben Kucera, who was stoned by Izyk at the 15:24 mark on a shot from the slot that seemed destined to cut the Colonials lead in half.
As the period wore on, the Colonials’ experience and depth took over, as Robert Morris delivered a knockout blow with two goals in 17 seconds. The first came at 7:23 when forward Brady Ferguson finished a two-on-one with David Friedmann, and the second came at 17:43 when senior forward Zac Lynch beat Christopoulos with a wrister from the right circle to put the Colonials up by four goals.
Matt Cope finished off the Colonials scoring with an empty-net goal at 17:30, while Falcons defenseman Johnny Hrabovsky scored the lone Air Force goal with a shot from the point at 7:41.
“We competed and we played hard enough, but I think we have to play smarter,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “We gave them way too many outnumbered rushes and we had a lot of shots but we didn’t get much traffic in front of their goaltender. Robert Morris is a very experienced team, they’ve got good habits, they’re big and strong and physical, and you’ve got to give them some credit, but we’ve got to become a better team. We’ve got a long ways to go but for now we’re going to go back and watch some film and correct some things and give a similar effort but pay more attention to detail.”
