Two years, six months, and 23 days.
That is how long it has been since the Robert Morris men’s hockey played their last game. That game was an upsetting loss against Niagara in the quarter-finals of the AHA playoffs. A couple of months later, the program was discontinued, leaving the future of Pittsburgh’s college hockey team to seem bleak.
Today, for the first time in 937 days, the RMU Men’s hockey team has taken to the ice, and Coach Derek Schooley couldn’t be happier.
“Win or lose, we had already won,” Coach Schooley said. “And it’s good to be back, it’s good to compete, it’s good to feel the emotion of a game. Thank you, to the city of Pittsburgh.”
A few hours earlier the women’s hockey team took the lead 1:14 into the 1st period, a perfect scenario as some would call it. For the men, it was the exact opposite. 0:51 into the first period, a blocked shot had the puck fall perfectly to Bowling Green’s fifth-year graduate transfer out of Princeton, Spencer Kersten. A one-time wrister from him, and the Colonials were quickly down 1-0.
The game would continue throughout the first to be lightning-quick and just as physical. A specific moment was when, six minutes in, BGU’s Brandon Santa Juanta crushed RMU’s starting forward Dallas Tulik into the boards, sending him to the floor. The crowd couldn’t help but collectively wince after such a reverberating sound.
The Colonials showed some rust early on. They were easily being outpaced outplayed, and were making visible mistakes.
Chad Veltri was there to bail him out. He made a miraculous diving effort but couldn’t save Dalton Norris’ backside shot during BGU’s power play, and RMU would go down 2-0 with only 12:40 gone in the first period.
The Colonials would have a power play near the end of the first but fail to convert, and after being outshot 19-4 they would end the period trailing 2-0.
The second period almost started with a bang for the Colonials. After a mishap on the blue line for the Falcons, Tanner Klimpke had the entire ice to himself to take on goaltender Christian Stoever. The sound of the post clanging as the shot ricocheted wide was almost as loud as the shout of the sold-out Clearview Arena crowd.
The Colonials would continue to have a much stronger period than the first but struggle to find the breakthrough goal. Bowling Green would kill another RMU power play, which came 11:31 into the second period.
There would be a double penalty with 6:34 left in the second period—a two-minute slashing on Gulash of RMU but a five-minute slashing on the goal scorer Norris of BGSU. Bowling Green would kill this one as well. Despite spending a quarter of the second period with an extra man, RMU would still find themselves without a goal heading into the third period.
At the end of the second period, Eric Parker of Bowling Green would get a five-minute penalty for game misconduct and contact to the head. So, to start the third period, the Colonials would again have a man advantage.
After five minutes, the Colonials still could not find the answer to their scoring woes. For said power play to start the 3rd period, RMU was actually lucky to be still only trailing 2-0. Once again, Veltri was at his best in the net as he would end the night with 40 saves. His secret to success? His emotionless aura.
“I don’t have emotions. That’s pretty much that,” Veltri said. “That comes with being a goalie, right? You don’t want to see your goalie slamming his stick off the post or anything, so. I’ve learned over the years just to keep calm.”
Their struggles on the power play, which the team had 12 minutes of this game, was something Coach Schooley looked to fix.
“We had a couple of power play opportunities,” Schooley said. “At times it looked like we had never played with each other. But we need to find a way to play properly.”
Almost as soon as RMU’s five-minute power play ended, Bowling Green would begin one of their own after Krotiris was called for a boarding penalty. The Colonials would end up killing it, but to the disappointment of the team and the crowd, their chances of winning slowly died.
Ben Wozney would chuck the dagger into the empty net of RMU as the game would end with a final score of Robert Morris 0, Bowling Green 3.
Nevertheless, the entire arena was excited to see the team back on the ice. The Colonials will look for a better result against the Falcons as the two will clash again in Bowling Green tomorrow at 5 p.m.
