Photo courtesy of Kylee Surike/RMU Athletics
NEVILLE TWP.,PA- For the second night in a row the Robert Morris Colonials were so close but so far away from taking valuable points in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings as a late third period goal from Christian Catalano broke a 2-2 tie and pushed the RIT Tigers past the Colonials at Clearview Arena on Saturday. Once again, it was a tight sixty minutes of hockey with little room to work with for either side with both teams searching for momentum that proved difficult to come by as witnessed by a period of over 10 minutes to start the third frame that saw neither team register a shot on goal.
“It was a heartbreaker,” Colonial head coach Derek Schooley said. “We talked about net front battles in certain areas and we didn’t do a very good job of a tip on a goal and our special teams have to be better. It was a race to three. You either have to get the next one to make it 3-1 to stretch the lead or get the next one and we didn’t do the job. We have to shoot the puck. We’re over passing and we’re over thinking. We’ve got to get pucks and bodies to the net. We did a poor job of getting everything to the net. If we deliver pucks to the net we get a rebound and score. It’s simple hockey sometimes and we’re making it hard. It’s frustrating.”
The festivities started off with a bang however as the teams traded goals less than three minutes into the first period with Colonial forward George Krotiris hammering home his third goal of the season just 24 seconds into the game after taking a pass from Ryan Taylor in the slot and beating starting Tiger net minder Jakum Krbecek. Tyler Mahan tied things up just under two minutes later when he finished a quickly developing two on one with Simon Isabelle, beating Charlie Schenkel in the Colonial net at 2:16. Defenseman Greg Japchen then put Robert Morris back in front at 7:23 with an unassisted tally. It was a stark contrast to the first period effort of the Colonials on Friday night where their intensity was perhaps lacking at moments. Robert Morris looked to be in command early, rolling up a 9-2 shot advantage early on while denying the potent RIT attack a chance to get rolling.
Tiger forward Ty Whyte tipped a shot off a faceoff in the Colonial end past Schenkel at 2:28 of the middle stanza to knot the game back up at two goals apiece which would hold up as only goal for over 30 minutes on the score sheet until Catalano’s goal doomed the Colonials as he put a fat rebound back into a yawning net. For the Tigers, it was a crucial early conference road sweep that could pay dividends down the road in terms of home ice advantage while for the Colonials, the results were heartbreaking, and more so on Saturday when a better fate was deserved.
The Colonials take to the road next weekend for a two game non-conference set at Lindenwood University.
