Robert Morris dropped their third straight Friday game this time in a 3-0 shutout loss against Bentley. This has become an unfortunate theme for the Colonials and Coach Schooley knows this.

“Three straight Fridays at home we get outworked. You try changing the routine, try changing the pregame meal, try changing game day, you try changing a lot of things and obviously everything we are trying to change isn’t working. It’s frustrating.” said Schooley.

Frustration is echoing throughout the locker room, they all know that they are struggling on Fridays at the 84 Lumber Arena. “That was the theme this week. We tried to switch a lot of things up. Our pregame meal and we changed our Thursday practice up; but, when it comes down to it, it comes down to the guys being ready and we just got outplayed tonight.”

With the end of the regular season rapidly approaching. Points would be hard to come by for the remaining games since the conference was tight for the middle positions. Going into this game, first and second places were held by Canisius and Air Force, while RMU holds the third spot.

However, the Colonials, who have 26 points, are six points behind Air Force who is one behind Canisius. Army, Holy Cross, and Mercyhurst are tied for fourth with 24 points. RIT comes next on the leader board with 22 points and are followed by the Bentley Falcons at 20 points.

These were the standings before the game; as the conclusion of this game would be watched intently by the entirety of the Atlantic Conference.

The first period began with strong emotions and a palpable desire for points. The Colonials were surprisingly strong on the forecheck, making sure they finished their checks.

Penalty after penalty in the first frame of the game showed that. The teams went to work on their respective power plays but neither side found the twine. Marotte stood strong for the Colonials and continued to keep RMU in the game. After 20 minutes the score was even at zero despite excellent scoring opportunities by both sides.

The middle period would be different from the first on the scoreboard. With 14:58 remaining, Bentley’s Matt Riggleman beat Marotte five-hole to put the Falcons on the board.

A minute later, Chris Buchanan for Bentley shot the puck from the point and it navigated to the back of the net. Marotte is known to be able to shake off a bad period and be stellar after. He continued to display that and for the remainder of the period did not let up a goal. Unfortunately for the Colonials, Aidan Pelino was also not letting up a goal on the other end of the ice.

Robert Morris was throwing everything they could on Pelino and still couldn’t get the puck past him through 40 minutes of play.

With two and a half minutes to go, Timmy Moore was crashing the net in typical Colonial fashion and ended up in the face of Pelino with no way to slow down. Moore would fly into Pelino, ultimately throwing the net off as the two men met the crossbar. Pelino was checked out by the referees and the Falcons had some words for Moore. In the end, Pelino was deemed okay and there was no penalty given to Moore despite refutes by Bentley.

After 40, the game was 2-0 in favor of the Falcons.

The third period was a lot like the first period but with more discipline. There were only a few penalties in the third but with the same aggression that was seen in the first 40 minutes.

The Colonials struggled to get quality shots on Pelino for the first quarter of period but eventually got a good chance while on the penalty kill.

Spencer Dorowicz came down with speed on the left side of the ice. The goaltender followed him a bit too far then Dorowicz turned on the jets and buzzed down and around behind the net trying to get a wrap around. Pelino just got the skate to the post in time, one of many fantastic saves by the tender in the game.

Aidan Pelino would then rob Timmy Moore of a wonderful chance as Pelino was on his stomach and nobody was around to help him. The tender got the glove up and snatched the puck out of the air tempting Moore to stare at the ceiling.

RMU could not beat Pelino as he was a brick wall for Bentley. The Falcons scored on the empty net which solidified the win for Bentley. The final score would be 3-0 in favor of the Falcons

Bentley would pick up the much needed two points and Robert Morris would look to get them back when they face the Falcons on Saturday in what could be their most important game of the season.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”121″ gal_title=”Mens Hockey: RMU vs Bentley Saturday”]