RMU Hockey: Colonials Maintain Lead In Atlantic Hockey Conference Power Rankings

What a difference an off-season can make for your ice hockey program. Last season, the Robert Morris University Colonials were 2-12-2 by New Year’s Eve before going on their Atlantic Hockey championship run. This season, Derek Schooley’s squad has opened up with a 5-0-1 mark before Halloween.

Senior left wing Cody Wydo leads the conference in the early going with six goals and 10 points while junior right wing Zac Lynch is the leader in assists with six.

When the Colonials are at their end of the ice, the defense and goaltending have been a fortress as they have surrendered just seven goals in six games. Sophomore goaltender Dalton Izyk has 97 saves on 98 shots and two shutouts so far this season, while junior netminder Terry Shafer has .935 save percentage.

1) RMU Colonials (5-0-1 overall, 3-0-1 AHA) – Last Week #1: Of the 21 goals Robert Morris has put on the score sheet, six of the scores have come on the power play. Senior center Scott Jacklin and junior left wing Matt Cope are tied for second in the country in game-winning goals with two apiece.

The Colonials have found the back of the net for five goals in the first period and six in the second. It is the third frame that they like to bring all muskets to bear with 10 goals in the final period.

2) Canisius College Golden Griffins (4-2-0, 3-1-0 AHA) – Last Week #2: The second-place Griffs collected some kudos this week as Cody Freeman was the Atlantic Hockey Co-Player of the Week with RMU’s Wydo when the junior forward put up three goals and one assist in the two-game sweep of AIC last weekend.

The other award went to freshman forward Nolan Sheeran, who earned Rookie of the Week honors recording three assists in the sweep of the Yellow Jackets.

3) Army Black Knights (2-3-1, 2-3-1 AHA) – Last Week #5: The caissons are rolling along as Brian Riley’s squad is getting contributions across the board from nine different goal scorers in six games this season and has collected league points in their first three weekends. Three of their top scorers, Tyler Pham, Conor Andrie and Brendan Mcguire, are freshmen.

4) Bentley University Falcons (3-2-0, 1-1-0 AHA) – Last Week #6: The Falcons claimed their first ever non-conference sweep with a pair of victories over the Engineers of Rensselaer. Freshman forward Kyle Schmidt scored the first two goals of his career in the 5-2 Friday win over RPI. Bentley is second in the conference with 19 goals scored this season.

5) Mercyhurst University Lakers (2-2-0, 1-1-0 AHA) – Last Week #3: While the Lakers split their weekend series with Hockey East opponent Merrimack, there was additional good news as senior forward Matthew Zay became the 17th player in the Division 1 era at Mercyhurst to make it to 100 career points. He has 34 goals and 66 assists in 116 contests.

6) RIT Tigers (2-3-0, 1-1-0 AHA) – Last Week #7: The Tigers are looking to climb up the league standings this weekend as they travel to 84 Lumber Arena to take on the Colonials. RIT is 4-6-4 all-time against RMU, but the two programs split it right down the middle last season 1-1-1. The Tigers have won the last two meetings on Neville Island.

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7) Air Force Falcons (2-4-0, 2-2-0 AHA) – Last Week #8: In the weekend split with RIT, the Falcons top line of Scott Holm, Chad Demers and Cole Gunner combined to score three of their team’s five goals against the Tigers. They will need that kind of effort again this week when Air Force travels to Grand Forks to take on third-ranked North Dakota on Saturday.

8) Sacred Heart University Pioneers (2-4-0, 2-2-0 AHA) – Last Week #4: The Pioneers have gotten results on the score sheet since the line of Zach Luczyk, Zach Sabatini and Kory Kennedy were put together on Oct. 12th. The trio have combined for five goals and seven assists for 12 points.

9) Holy Cross College Crusaders (1-4-1, 1-0-1 AHA) – Last Week #9: If the Crusaders move up this season, it will be in part on the shoulders of their senior goaltender Matt Ginn, who has 2,886 career saves. He is just 30 away from setting the Holy Cross all-time career saves record.

10) American International College Yellow Jackets (0-4-1, 0-3-1 AHA) – Last Week #10: One might want to consult Biff’s Sports Almanac from Back To The Future to see how this weekend’s series turns out as Gary Wright’s crew seek their first victory of the season on the road at winless Niagara when they take on the Purple Eagles in a pair of contests.

11) Niagara University Purple Eagles (0-6-0, 0-2-0 AHA) – Last Week #11: The Purple Eagles were convincingly swept last weekend by the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame. David Burkholder’s offense is grounded as they have put up just nine goals while surrendering 35 scores, including nine on the power play, to their opponents.