Robert Morris University Women’s Hockey Finishes January Strong

Robert Morris University women’s hockey team continued to excel as the Colonials finished the month of January with a record of 5-2-1.

The program received 48 points on Tuesday to place eighth in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. They are five ahead of No. 9 Quinnipiac in the rankings. The Colonials fell to ninth in the USCHO.com poll released on Monday.

It is the ninth consecutive week that RMU has found itself in the top 10 in both polls. The Colonials spent four straight weeks in both rankings in the receiving votes category before breaking in to the top 10 for the first time in school history last November.

RMU continues to bring “Fire To The Ice” as they have built an overall record of 21-5-2 in their ninth season. The previous regular-season record of 19 wins was set in head coach Paul Colontino’s first season with the Colonials back in 2011-2012. It was also the program’s first CHA championship in seven years of existence.

With a record of 10-3-1 in the CHA this year, Robert Morris is tied with the Mercyhurst University Lakers for first place in the conference. The Colonials are back at 84 Lumber Arena this weekend for a two-game series with fourth-place Syracuse. The Orange are 14-11-2 overall and 6-6-2 in the CHA.

The last time the Colonials and the Orange got together was Nov. 22-23 in Syracuse. They tied 1-1 in the opening contest and Robert Morris took a close Game 2 with a final score of 2-1.

This two-game set is a part of the CHA’s “Skate for the Cure” weekend in which RMU will be raising money for breast cancer awareness. Friday’s contest is set to drop the puck at 7:05 p.m. while Saturday’s game will get underway at 3:05 p.m.

Meanwhile, Mercyhurst is hosting third-place RIT this weekend in Erie.

Robert Morris split last weekend’s College Hockey America conference games in Missouri with fifth place Lindenwood University. The Colonials took aim and captured Friday’s game 6-1 while the Lions, who are 3-21-2 overall and 3-10-1 in the CHA, clawed their way to a 4-2 upset on Saturday.

In Friday’s 6-1 victory, junior center Rebecca Vint scored a hat trick for the second game in a row and the third time of her career. She is the all-time leader in goals in RMU history with 58. Junior center Katie Fergus, freshman right wing Brittany Howard and sophomore right wing Ashley Vesci each added a goal. Also, freshman goaltender Jessica Dodds broke Kristen DiCiocco’s regular-season wins record by picking up her 18th victory.

Senior left wing Thea Imbrogno scored both goals for Robert Morris in the 4-2 Saturday loss to Lindenwood. The native of Etobicoke, Ontario, has 11 goals on the season, and is just the fourth player in program history to score 50 goals or more in a career, behind Sara O’Malley (52), Brianna Delaney (53), and her teammate Vint.

Vint and Dodds were respectively named the CHA player and goaltender of the month for January.

Larry Snyder is a staff writer for City of Champions. He also serves as public address announcer for the RMU men’s and women’s hockey teams at 84 Lumber Arena. Follow him on Twitter @Larry_N_Snyder.