With grandparents in attendance, Timmy Moore put on a show Saturday night, driving Robert Morris to a 4-1 victory over Bentley. Due to the loss the night before, this tied the series and forced a third game Sunday evening.

“My family comes from Detroit, four hours away and they’re here almost every weekend,” said Moore. “You know, when you lose a playoff game like that, it sucks to have them here and watch that. But when we bounce back, it’s awesome, it feels great.”

Moore was the first star of the game. He assisted on the first goal by Brady Ferguson, a magnificent play where a pass from behind the net by Moore was received at the faceoff dot. Ferguson deked around multiple defenders before roofing the shot past Gabe Antoni.

Moore assisted again on Ferguson’s second goal, which made the game 2-0 in the second period. Ferguson managed a strong effort, again evading multiple defenders to help drive the possession before repeating the earlier goal on the opposite side.

“You look last year in the Niagara series, Timmy Moore and Spencer Dorowicz had the game winning goal in each game,” said Colonials head coach Derek Schooley. “You have to get secondary scoring in the playoffs, because they’re going to key on your top guys.”

Robert Morris attempted some different tactics for this evening’s affair. They started with Chase Golightly on defense with Tyson Wilson, but reverted back to their original line-up thereafter. Throughout the game Golightly had multiple long shifts as the Colonials went down to five defenders.

“At times we went down to five,” said Schooley. “You know, we don’t have another day. So you go, run your guns out. Run your seniors, run your forwards out. Don’t worry about saving them for tomorrow, because there might not be a tomorrow.”

The Colonials maintained strong possession throughout the evening, but Schooley noted the second period as the most lopsided. In the second period alone, Robert Morris outshot Bentley 23-8. They would finish the game having outshot the Falcons 45-23.

“There weren’t very many negative things to say,” said Schooley. “I usually can have something that I can find that we can do better, but gosh our game was solid from top to bottom. I thought we were good in all situations, we did everything we needed to do. We made sure that we got the puck, played down low. And we reaped the benefits of it. Look at the second period shots, look at the shot chart, that just shows you — everything around the net. That was a complete hockey game.”

Into the second period was when things got a bit more hectic for the Falcons. Midway through, Brandon Denham received a pass on a breakaway and charged forward for the easy scoring opportunity, capitalizing on it seconds later. Within 20 seconds of that goal, Bentley went a man-down, seemingly losing their cool for a moment.

Bentley managed to battle back later on in the period with a goal from Cody DePourcq. However, like the night prior (but with the roles reversed), the Colonials gave the Falcons a taste of their own medicine. They answered back immediately, scoring just a minute later after Timmy Moore made the play of the night.

Blocking a shot at his own blue line, Moore got free for a breakaway opportunity. His shot fired past the blocker of Antoni to make it 4-1.

“That’s kind of my game is hard work in the offensive zone and grind away, but play solid defensively,” said Moore. “Playing with [Ferguson and Leavens] the past month or two, it’s been helpful on the offensive side as well so that’s good.”

Bentley pulled their goaltender for the third period, putting in Jayson Argue. They were already playing with one less player as their senior captain Andrew Gladiuk was not in the line-up. After the game, coach Schooley said he was told Gladiuk was “ill.”

“I would be shocked to see Gladiuk not get dressed and come back tomorrow,” said Schooley. “Obviously an all league player, you lose an all league player. I don’t know if they were playing with house money, saying we’ll save him in case of a game three, I don’t know. And he’s a senior. I would be shocked not to see him tomorrow.”

The two teams will meet again on Sunday night at 84 Lumber Arena at 7:05 p.m. It will be the third game of the best-of-three series, and the winner will travel to Rochester, N.Y. the following weekend for the Atlantic Hockey semifinals.