The Robert Morris men improved to 5-3-2 on the season with a sweep of Sacred Heart, climbing to second place in the Atlantic Hockey Conference standings, just three points behind Army as the Colonials head into their first-half bye week.
The Colonials were picked to finish sixth in the conference, mostly due to a young core that contains 10 freshmen and is relying on big contributions from other underclassmen.
It’s pretty safe to say, then, that RMU has exceeded expectations in the early part of the 2016-17 season. But that isn’t just the case on a team-wide basis. Several players have made some unexpected strides, as well, and are rising to the top of the table nationally.
• Junior forward Brady Ferguson has eight goals and 10 assists for 18 points, which is good enough for third in the country. He’s also third in the country in points per game, with a 1.80 mark.
Ferguson has showed flashes of talent since he scored 11 goals as a freshman two years ago. The challenge has been bringing his ‘A’ game on a nightly basis. He was blanked in the two-game series against Army in late October, but other than that, he has a point in every game this season for RMU and has completely taken over a few games, with a six-point night at RIT on Oct 8 and two goals and an assist against Sacred Heart last Friday.
I wrote this weekend that Ferguson needs to have a balance between using his hands and skill with playing a sound, physical game. If he’s able to do that — and stay out of trouble in the defensive zone — it could be a long season for those Atlantic Hockey defends tasked with covering the Lewisville, Texas native.
• Freshman goaltender Francis Marotte has played exceptionally well after being called upon for extra duty due to a pair of injuries to senior starter Dalton Izyk.
Marotte has played eight games thus far and has a 5-1-1 record, a .956 save percentage and a 1.48 goals-against average. He’s third in the nation in GAA and second in save percentage, showing why he was one of the Colonials’ most important recruits coming out of Nepean in the Central Canada Hockey League.
Head coach Derek Schooley does expect Marotte to hit the proverbial “freshman wall” at some point, but with Izyk expected to be sidelined for some time with a lower-body injury, Marotte is the man in net for now for the Colonials.
• On the blue line, sophomore Eric Israel is tied for second in the nation amongst defenseman with 10 assists. Israel has blossomed in a new defensive pairing with junior Elias Ghantous. The stay-at-home Ghantous has allowed Israel to explore the creative side of his game more than he did as a freshman when paired with last year’s captain, Tyson Wilson.
Seven of Israel’s assists have come on the power play, and that unit has picked up right where it left off a year ago despite an almost total changeover in personnel. The Colonials are third in the nation with a 26.92 success rate with the man advantage and Ferguson and Alex Tonge are tied for second in the country with four power-play goals apiece.
