MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Mercyhurst kept to the game plan, a successful formula that saw the Lakers stymie Robert Morris’ offensive attack for large stretches of their weekend series, but all good things must come to an end.
The Colonials broke through as Saturday night’s contest advanced en route to a 6-1 victory, and did so by staying patient when the scoring was at a premium.
“It’s always in the back of your head as a coach, you keep asking if we’re going to put this team away,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “I though our guys were very resilient and they did a very good job in that second period to make sure we played in their end. I told the guys after the first period that our biggest detriment to ourselves was not wanting to advance pucks and self-inflicted wounds. We did a great job advancing pucks and playing down low tonight, and now we’re back in a position of controlling our own destiny tonight.”
From the drop of the puck, the game bore stark resemblance to the previous night’s affair between the conference foes, as the Lakers kept the Colonials from developing any type of speed or continuity through the neutral zone, while keeping starting netminder Terry Shafer on his toes with 14 first-period shots.
And in keeping in line with Friday night’s contest, the Colonials also got out in front by two goals in the first frame, the first coming at 15:58 when Brandon Denham knocked in a loose puck at the side of the net following a turnover thanks to Brady Ferguson. The second came at 18:05 as Brandon Watt scored his first goal as a Colonial. Watt found a loose puck in neutral ice and skated it over the Laker blue line where he unleashed a low shot from the top of the circles that snuck past Mercyhurst goaltender Adam Carlson.
The second frame saw RMU start to take full control.
With the Lakers still standing up at their own blue line, Robert Morris set to work down low in the Lakers’ end. The adjustment worked as the period went along, the flow opened up and the Colonials’ offense found their speed as evidenced by their 16 shots on goal.
However, Carlson stood tall despite the rubber thrown his direction, and in three shorthanded situations as well, he managed to make 15 much-needed saves.
But it was the save he could not make that perhaps set the tone for the rest of the night.
At the 19:34 mark, Greg Gibson, working on an odd-man rush, took a pass from Zac Lynch and sent a hard shot from the top of the left circle that bounced of Carlson’s glove and into the net to give Robert Morris a three-goal lead entering the final 20 minutes.
It was also Gibson’s 100th career point.
From that point on, the Colonials looked like a different team than played the night before as their offensive zone time and scoring chances piled up quickly.
Robert Morris forward Spencer Dorowicz put the Colonials ahead by four at 7:34 when he took a Gibson pass and deposited the puck on a one-timer for his fifth goal of the season.
The Lakers were never able to climb into the contest, but did manage a power-play tally at 12:46 as Derek Barach deflected a shot that tipped past Shafer.
Daniel Leavens and Chase Golightly finished off the scoring on the night with two late-period goals for RMU.
The win, coupled with a Holy Cross loss earlier in the night kept the Colonials in first place in the Atlantic Hockey standings for yet another week.
“I thought we actually played a good first period tonight, but we gave up that goal with about five and a half minutes to go, but the real back-breaker was that second goal right before the period ended,” Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin said. “But we were in the same spot were last night, down 2-0, but still doing the things that we wanted to do. And we gave up that one late in the second and from that point on, we were chasing the game. We looked like a team that had 12 freshmen dressed from that point on.
“Robert Morris has some great players on their team and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy and at the end of the day it got away from us.”
