Preseason or not, the team looks ready to go.  Coach Schooley is stressing an “up tempo” style with this team, not your typical Colonial squad which we have seen in the past.  The team looked really good, they played sharp all game long.  A few miscues here and there, but overall a very high grade.

Jersey worn: Third Alternate Grey with Colonial Head Logo

From the 1st Period:
From the start of the game, the Colonials put together a very aggressive uptempo style of play.  Each line seemed to be split between veteran players with a few of the new guys, Coach Schooley did not make any lines of Freshman players, which we could see as the season goes on.  It’s a good start to have the mix of veteran leadership on the lines with the young guys, plus they looked real solid.

Both goals in the 1st were powerplay goals, good to see Cody Chrichton getting time on the powerplay, especially since he scored.  Freshman Trevor Lewis showed good vision on the ice, coming to RMU he seems to be known for his scoring but he put together some great team plays, one in particular that didn’t quite pan out, he put a pass towards the net very similar to the Alexander Ovechkin goal from I believe his rookie season.  Not exactly the same, but it was the effort that counted to put the puck in front of the net.

Matt Krug looked sharp taking great shots from the point, unfortunately they didn’t hit the back of the net, but it is great to see a hard shooting defensemen taking the opportunity to just pummel the goaltender with hard slap shots.

2nd Period:
Fifty one seconds in on the 5 minute powerplay for Robert Morris (on a sloofooting penalty), another goal this time by Chris Kushneriuk, who also played a really solid game for the Colonials (he added another goal later in the game as well), he put in a rebound goal in lots of traffic off the Ryerson goaltender’s pads.

Scary moment when Nathan Longpre got upended in the defensive zone, it looked like he could have landed on his head but he managed to keep his balance, somehow while in mid-air and pretty much landed on his skates, anybody else probably would have broken their neck.

2nd Great Play of the night has to go to Denny Urban.  Late in the 2nd period, Urban picked up a turnover putting together a great pass over to Chris Margott then to Trevor Lewis down by the net for a one-time.  Man was that pretty, one of those things where you tingle a little bit thinking, if they can do this the entire season, need I say more.

Play of the Night, already in the 2nd period here, it’s not even fair to give it away this soon, but you had to.  Chris Margott takes the puck from the defensive zone deking and skating his way into the offensive zone, making about three guys miss on some pretty sick moves only to  dish it off to Denny Urban and then a quick one-timer pass over to Jason Towsley for the goal.  Once again, ridiculous with this whole pass, pass and one-time thing.

3rd Period:
Not going to lie, was pretty boring, as the Colonials were still in complete control but pulled back (as they should have) so they wouldn’t completely creme Ryerson.  Three more goals were scored, mostly because Ryerson was spending so much time in the penalty box try frustrating themselves throughout the game.

The Things that Matter:
Robert Morris had every opportunity to score, especially on the powerplay, and they took every advantage of it going 6 for 10, not bad for the first game.  RMU only had 5 penalties, that is GREAT.  Last year’s team was plagued by penalties at crucial moments, a great start on the advantage gives the young guys a good look at a solid team style.

Jason Towsley looked great as well.  A lot of people kept telling me that if you watched him in practice, you could see that he is just waiting to break out and start scoring, I hope he keeps it up.

Team-wise overall, I was really impressed with the positioning on the ice of the young guys, as well as their poise and demeanor.  There wasn’t a lot of over aggressive cheating to get to the right spots, guys were trusting each other, and building on that is key.  Trust where your teammates are and you will win games.

The only downside to the game, it is really tough to judge how both Wes Russell and Jim Patterson looked in net, only because they didn’t see a lot of shots.  In two periods, Russell saw seven shots and in the third when Patterson came in he saw five.  Here is what I did see, two verbal goaltenders staying on top of when guys were getting out of the box on the powerplay, very conscious attention to the defense coming back to set up plays.  It’s going to take time to really see where these two are at, I do not expect to see a lot of Brooks Ostergard right away, but we could you never know.

3 Stars:
1- Jason Towsley
2- Chris Kushneriuk
3 – Trevor Lewis