Robert Morris captain Rikki Meilleur will miss the team’s games this weekend with an undisclosed but potentially serious illness, according to multiple team sources.
Meilleur, a St. Adolphe, Manitoba native, has two goals and an assist in 16 games for the Colonials this season but is expected to miss at least the team’s two games at Penn State this Saturday and Sunday.
Following the trip to Happy Valley, the team is off until the Colonials host Brown Dec. 30 and 31, leaving the potential for a short absence in terms of games missed.
First-year forward Emma Low-A-Chee will likely replace Meilleur in the team’s lineup. She’s played three games without recording a point this season.
The team will play a pair of afternoon games, with faceoff at Pegula Ice Arena set for 1 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.
NEED A BIGGER SHELF
The Robert Morris women continued their dominance of the College Hockey America awards this season as Brittany Howard and Jaycee Gebhard brought home weekly and monthly awards this week.
Howard was named Player of the Week and Gebhard was named Rookie of the Week for their combine nine points in Robert Morris’ 1-0-1 third-place finish at the Windjammer Classic in Burlington, Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend.
It was the culmination of a pretty special November for the RMU top duo as they took home monthly honors in the same category. Gebhard had seven points and Howard had 12 points in just six games.
STILL KNOCKING ON THE DOOR
Even after a draw with No. 5 Clarkson last week, the Colonials weren’t able to claw their way back into the national rankings this week.
RMU received votes in both national polls, collecting 17 points in the USA Hockey coaches poll and 15 points in the USCHO.com poll to finish one spot out of the Top 10 in each.
The Pairwise ranking, which is a mathematical ranking that determines at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season, is more kind to the Colonials, placing them No. 8 nationally.
No matter how you slice it, the Colonials are the highest-ranked team in the CHA, including the standings themselves, where they hold a two-point lead over the Nittany Lions entering the weekend.
