The irresistible force met the immovable object Friday night at 84 Lumber Arena, as the Robert Morris University Colonials (12-6-3) and their heralded power play played host to the Bentley Falcons (8-10-2) and their highly touted penalty kill. After 60 minutes, the Colonials emerged with three power-play goals and a 5-1 win, propelling them to the top of the Atlantic Hockey standings.
“I liked the way our guys moved the puck, I liked the options they made,” Colonials coach Derek Schooley said regarding his team’s power play, which leads the country at a 35 percent clip. “We’re not putting reins on them, you see people interchanging, you see people moving and you’re seeing creative, skilled hockey players making plays.”
Beyond the special teams performance, the Colonials used a recipe for success that included creating scoring chances at will throughout the game while keeping the Falcons out of the prime scoring areas at the same time. Robert Morris gained the upper hand from the drop of the puck as two quick goals took any chance of any early momentum away from their opponent.
Brady Ferguson opened the scoring just 1:44 into opening period action as Robert Morris forward Matt Cope’s offensive zone pressure forced a Bentley turnover behind the net. The puck emerged just a few feet in front of an open net as starting Falcons netminder Gabe Antoni could not recover in time to make the save on Ferguson, who knocked the puck over the line. Then, with Falcons defenseman Matt Blomquist serving a penalty for tripping, Greg Gibson took a pass from Cope in the lower right circle and drilled it past Antoni to double the Colonials advantage.
The Falcons attempted to assert themselves over the next series of shifts in an effort to mount some offense of their own. However, they were kept out of the slot for the most part, and what shots did get through were handled capably by Colonials goaltender Terry Shafer who managed to stop all 15 Bentley shots in the opening frame, including several close-range shots on a Falcons power play before time expired.
“You want to have a good start at home and you want to have them chase the game a little bit and we did that,” Schooley said. “They kept Zac Lynch off the board but they didn’t keep everybody else off the board. Greg Gibson had a lot of shots and a lot of energy, he was flying out there and defensively, we did a really good job around our net and kept them to the perimeter. Shafer wasn’t really tested much tonight, but he was solid and did what he needed to do.
Robert Morris took the lead into the dressing room, and came out desperate to extend the lead as the puck dropped for the second period. After killing off the remainder of the held-over power play, the Colonials unleashed one scoring chance after another, with several coming from odd-man rushes. Antoni kept his team in the game with a strong series of saves until the 7:33 mark when Brandon Denham sent a puck from close range that deflected off a Bentley skate in the crease and into the net to give the Colonials a 3-0 advantage.
The Falcons answered less than two minutes later when Drew Callin beat Shafer from the slot with a shot that went through traffic at the 9:07 mark, but the Falcons would draw no closer the rest of the way. The Colonials simply shut the door on any hope of a Bentley comeback, and not always by way of defensive execution, but by keeping the pressure in the Falcons end throughout stretches of the final 30 minutes.
Robert Morris put the finishing touches on the win with a pair of third-period power-play goals, the first coming just 41 seconds into the third period as Daniel Leavens finished a brilliant pass from David Friedmann and buried it past Antoni. Gibson then tallied his second on the night when he redirected a Tyson Wilson pass from point-blank range to complete the scoring on the evening.
“Obviously we’re pretty distraught with the way we played tonight,” Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist said. “Their power play ate us alive and we just didn’t make enough plays on the penalty kill. Our power play has been anemic. Special teams win games and we’re a long way from where we need to be; it’s a mystery right now for me. We had a ton of shots from outside the dots and we weren’t tough enough to get to the front of the net. They were tough in front of the net and scored goals. The first goal is huge for us tomorrow night.”
The two teams finish their weekend set Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.
