Photo Courtesy of Kylee Surike/RMU Athletics
NEVILLE TWP., PA- The Robert Morris Colonials did exactly what they needed to do booth defensively and between the pipes, but they could not solve JJ Cataldo in the Army Black Knight net as they suffered a frustrating 2-0 loss on Saturday night at Clearview Arena. Defenseman Pierce Patterson’s shot through traffic made its way past starting Colonial goaltender Croix Kochendorfer at 13:27 of the third period to provide the game winning goal on a night where the Colonial offense missed on several close chances to either take the lead or tie the game in the final minutes.
“We played hard,” Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley said. “We were better defensively, our goaltending was much better, I really liked our line of O’Marra, Rourke and Gulash, I thought they played really well. “What it comes down to is we really didn’t score goals tonight. You plug one hole and fix one thing and then you have goal scoring issues. Those things happen in hockey but it’s getting frustrating because our guys did do a lot. We were a little sloppy in the neutral zone in the second and they pinned us in and that’s why they outshot us and when we had our chances their goalie was really good and we have to find a way to get one there. ”
From the drop of the puck, the Colonials played a strong defensive game, keeping Army to the perimeter while turning the tide on the shot counter in the second ten minutes of the first period in a scoreless battle that saw both sides wind up with 10 shots apiece. The pace of the game carried over into the middle frame where both sides came up with opportunities that both Cataldo and Kochendorfer turned aside as the Knights took more of a territory advantage in the final five minutes before the intermission.
In the final 20 minutes, Robert Morris turned both the momentum and shots that saw Cataldo make several point blank saves to preserve the shutout. Patterson then unleashed a hard shot from inside the blue line that broke the deadlock as traffic in front of Kochendorfer prevented the save. Mac Gadowsky then sealed the Black Knight victory and weekend sweep with an empty net tally at 19:52 to close out the score sheet.
“We’ve had a tough go of it, we’ve lost three in a row at home and it’s nothing to be happy about other than the fact that we’ve got to figure out a way to get things done and right the ship quickly.”
The Colonials will host Canisus on Tuesday night at Clearview Arena with the puck drop scheduled for 7:00 PM.
