With the reigning Atlantic Hockey player of the week in forward Cody Wydo and reigning Atlantic Hockey goalie and rookie of the week Dalton Izyk leading the charge in the AHA Championships, the Robert Morris Colonials look poised to rake on the No. 1 overall seeded Minnesota Gophers in the West regional Semifinals of the NCAA men’s hockey tournament.
After struggling in their first 16 games of the season, going 2-12-2, the Colonials righted the ship to end the regular season with an overall record of 19-17-5. They stormed through the AHA championships beating Niagara on an overtime goal from junior Scott Jacklin and a 51-save effort from Izyk making him the fourth goaltender in RMU program history. Izyk backed up his semifinal effort with a 27-save performance in the championship win over Canisius. In the AHA tournament, he compiled an undefeated 5-0-0 record, one shut out, a .942 save percentage and was named to the All-Tournament team. Izyk only appeared in five regular season games but had similar numbers with a 5-1-0 record and .922 save percentage.
Through the final two games of the AHA tournament, Wydo compiled four goals and an assist culminating in a hat trick during RMU’s five-goal outburst in the third period of the championship game, which was good enough to also earn him a spot on the All-Tournament Team and the tournament MVP award. Wydo lead the Colonials during the regular season with 52 points, (30 G 22 A) setting program records in goals and overall points. He also became the lone player in the NCAA this season to accrue a hat trick of games with a hat trick.
In 10 years as Division-I program, this is just the first trip to the NCAA tournament for the Colonials after receiving an automatic bid for winning the AHA tournament after finishing fifth in the regular season standings. Robert Morris has had their shoes shined for the big ice dance for several years after failing to earn automatic bids losing CHA tournament championships in 2007 and 2009.
For their first taste of NCAA tournament action, the Colonials will match up against the crème-de la crème of collegiate men’s hockey in the Minnesota Gophers. Traditionally one of the top programs in both men’s and women’s hockey, the Gophers are looking for a rebound after getting dumped in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament by an unranked Ohio State squad.
The Gophers are led by Big Ten Goaltender and Player of the Year Adam Wilcox, Big Ten Defenseman of the Year Mike Reilly and Big ten Coach of the Year Don Lucia.
Wilcox comes into the NCAA tournament with a .934 save percentage and 1.91 goals against average. He also ranks third in the NCAA in wins (23). For his efforts this season, Wilcox has been named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the Mike Richter Award and a candidate for an All-America Award.
Taking a look at the numbers, the Colonials and Gophers looked to be evenly matched on offense averaging 3.5 and 3.4 goals per game, respectively. The difference in the game will be on the defensive side with the third-ranked Gophers defense only allowing 2.0 goals a game while the Colonials allow an average of 3.0 goals a game. Minnesota will also look to take advantage of an aggressive Colonial team that totaled 511 penalty minutes during the regular season while only serving 337 minutes in the sin bin themselves. Robert Morris can take advantage of a potentially gun shy and reeling Gophers team that has just lost to an unranked opponent being one of two unranked teams in the tournament.
The puck drops today at 5:30 p.m. EDT at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
