Ben Finney leaves team, looking to transfer to D3 school

Freshman defenceman Ben Finney has left the RMU NCAA team and will transfer at the end of the semester, and inside source close to the team has reported that Ben is looking to transfer to a D3 school to play hockey.

Ben was recruited to Robert Morris in 2008 out of Pt. Hope (OPJHL), he re-shirted his Freshman year, and he appeared in two games this season, both were the exhibition games against Queen’s College.

RMU Head Coach Derek Schooley has not released an official comment on Ben’s status with the team, the University has only pointed to the athletic website, reporting that he is no longer listed on the team’s roster.

Colonials shutout at home against Niagara

RMU fell hard Wednesday nite in conference play to Niagara, letting up 5 goals, and getting shutout. There weren’t many recaps on the game, as well as this being one of the many games I have not been able to attend, but here are some various pieces to read on the night.

RMU has now fallen to 3-9-1 on the season, and fall into a tie with Niagara (2-8-2 overall) for 2nd in the CHA, each with 3 points on the season.

RMU was out-shot 55 to 38

On the power play – 10:47 times, 6 opportunities, 14 shots, 0 goals

Brooks Ostergard was pulled in the 2nd period (after about 30 minutes of play) after giving up 3 goals on 21 shots for Eric Levine (who played 27 minutes) who gave up 2 goals on 29 shots. with Joe Zeimianski logging 2 minutes in the game as well.

RMU was 35 of 65 on faceoffs for the game.

Niagara Purple Eagles Recap: NIA Athletics
Robert Morris Colonials Recap: RMU Athletics
From the Niagara Gazette:

Adam Avramenko made 38 saves to earn his second career shutout as the Niagara men’s hockey team got to .500 in conference play Wednesday with a 5-0 win at Robert Morris.

The Purple Eagles (2-8-2, 1-1-1 College Hockey America) are now unbeaten in their last three starts.

“From start to finish, we rolled four lines and really got after it on the forecheck,” coach Dave Burkholder said. “We spent a lot of time at the top of their crease and guys got rewarded because of it.

“… Unfortunately, with the schedule, we win one last Wednesday, then have the weekend off. Now we win, and have the weekend off again. The guys are starving to be rewarded for their hard work.”

Avramenko, a junior who backed up Juliano Pagliero the past two seasons, got his first shutout in the same building last February.

“It feels real good to get the shutout, but I really have to give credit to my defensemen,” he said. “The defense cleared out the bad bounces and allowed me to see the puck well.

Burkholder said, “You can tell on our bench when Avy is in control of the game, it takes a lot of pressure off of our guys.”

Chris Moran opened the scoring in the first period on an assist from Ryan Olidis. Both players extended their points streaks to six games.

Olidis scored a shorthanded goal early in the second, and Moran set up Brent Vandenberg later in the period to make it 3-0.

David Ross scored on a rebound in the third and Sam Goodwin added the final goal.

Colonials drop both games in Colorado, fall to 3-8-1

After the weekend series at #7 Colorado College, the Colonials have fallen to 3-8-1 on the season. Friday nite, Colorado College rallied late to win 4-3, but Saturday they controlled the game easily, winning 4-1.

More recaps to come later on the weekend.

RMU takes on #7 Colorado College

The Colonials are in Colorado this evening and tomorrow nite, to take on the #7 Colorado College Tigers. RMU improved to 3-6-1 last weekend after a win and a tie to Niagara University, in conference play, and look to cap a second win against a WCHA opponent this year, their first being against Alaska-Anchorage.

Watch LIVE on B2 Networks: Colorado College vs RMU (cost about $7)
Listen LIVE on the Tiger Sports Network (free streaming broadcast)
LIVE Stats provided here: Tigers vs RMU Live Stats

In the Crease Episode 3

A Note on the site change

For those of you who have found out where the site is at now, first off I’d like to apologize for the change.

I figured I could give a little reason as to why his occurred, and what we’ve missed in posting. The domain ownership of www.rmucentreice.com ran out a few weeks ago, and I was not properly notified by the domain service provider that I had purchased from originally. Once I noticed that the site had changed, it was too late, someone had already “squatted” on the domain, linking it to something about health and body stuff.

I was able to purchase www.rmucentreice.net from a different domain provider that I had already had better communication with, so we will not see this problem again. Hopefully in about a year, I will be able to buy back the old domain, and have both the .com and .net.

I’m not going to attempt to negotiate with this person squatting on my site, as they will most likely attempt to get me to pay more than what it is worth to get it back, I’d rather wait it out and if they choose to keep it, a year from now, I’m sure that everyone will know the new domain.

I’m extremely annoyed at this occurrence, because it seemed that people had really started to learn about the site and follow it, right at the start of the season.

I’m doing my best to get people updated and continue to get the word out, trying some new ways to spread the word too!

So Thanks for understanding and updating your links!

Beavers sweep weekend series, RMU falls to 2-6-0

With technical difficulties from the B2 Networks, anyone outside of the Bemidji area was restricted to the Live audio feed and the Live stats feed. It almost seemed as if Robert Morris was climbing back into the game and picking up their own tempo in the 2nd Period after being out shot in the 1st and not getting much time on the offensive attack, but Bemidji was just too strong, putting up 6 goals en route to sweeping the series for the weekend.

Robert Morris lost Friday nite’s game 2-0, and Saturday nite’s game 6-1. The following is a recap from the Bemidji Pioneer:

Bemidiji Pioneer
By: Eric Stromgren
The Bemidji State men‘s hockey team charged through another weekend with its unbeaten record intact.

The Beavers scored the first three goals of the game and went on to sweep Robert Morris with a dominating 6-1 victory at John Glas Fieldhouse Saturday night.

“We are very happy with this win because we put more of 60 minutes together rather than last night where we had just 30 good minutes,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “We were fortunate enough to get the sweep and I’m very proud of the energy level we had in the third period.

The Beavers will put their unbeaten record (7-0-1 overall, 4-0-0 CHA) to the test next weekend against the WCHA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers in a Saturday-Sunday series at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.

Minnesota moved to 3-4-1 on the season with a 5-2 victory at Wisconsin Saturday night.

Darcy Findlay, Tyler Lehrke, Ian Lowe, Matt Read, Jordan George and Emil Billberg scored goals for the Beavers. Dan Bakala earned his sixth win by making 27 saves.

“I thought our fourth line played really well tonight and they all had a part in the three goals we had in the third period,” Serratore said. “It’s nice to have that balance and the production was nice tonight.”
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Saturday Nite: RMU takes on Bemidji

After dropping Friday Nite’s game, 2-0, RMU will see Bemidji one more time tonite.

Game time is at 8:05pm Eastern.

Bemidji has improved to 6-0-1, where as Robert Morris has dropped to 2-5-0 after Friday nite.

Listen here: 103.7 KKBJ FM – Free to Listen
Watch here: B2 Networks Online – Average cost $7 to view the game
-Update: B2 Networks is posting that the broadcast stream has been canceled, most likely due to technical problems, this has occurred with BSU in the past.
Live Stats: BSU Athletics

Some line changes have gone into affect, last night, Schooley paired Hervato, Longpre and Kushneriuk on the top line, with Lewis, Kobialko and South on the second line.

At the end of the Ferris State series, it was noticeable that Longpre was getting the majority of the pressure when his line was out on the ice, as the Bulldogs raced after him, being the top threat on the line and on the power play.

Cody Chricton was also scratched from last nite’s game, there is a possiblity that will happen again, with the Coaching staff looking for more out of him on the ice in his defence.

Eric Levine will be starting in goal tonite.

Robert Morris Colonials
LW 10 Trevor Lewis – C 21 Nathan Longpre (A) – RW 17 Chris Kushneriuk (A)
LW 14 Zach Hervato – C 16 Scott Kobialko – RW 25 Furman South
LW 18 Ron Cramer – C 27 Brandon Blandina – RW 6 Joe Harcharik
LW 9 Nick Chiavetta – C 29 J.C. Velasquez – RW 15 Tom Brooks
LD 4 Brock Meadows – RD 44 Denny Urban
LD 5 James Lyle – RD 24 Dave Cowan (C)
LD 8 Josh Jones – RD 28 Cullen Lundholm
G 30 Eric Levine
G 35 Brooks Ostergard

*Still attempting to get the site back up and in order after the domain change issue. I apologize for the delay on recaps and upcoming information on games.

Friday Nite Recap: RMU 0 – BSU 2

Robert Morris dropped their first CHA matchup of the season 2-0, to the #11 Bemidji State Beavers.

Lineup changes were made this week, after some matchup situations against Ferris State. Chris Kushneriuk & Zach Hervato were moved up to play with Nathan Longpre on the top line, moving Trevor Lewis to the second line with Scott Kobialko and Furman South.

Cody Chrichton was a healthy scratch from the game, which may seem odd as he has played well offensively but this decision seems to be due to his lack of defensive play.

Here is a game recap from the Bemidji Pioneer:

Bemidji State hockey: Read turns the trick again on Robert Morris, Beavers stay unbeaten
By: Eric Stromgren, Bemidji Pioneer
Matt Read did it to Robert Morris again.

The junior forward broke a scoreless tie midway through the third period and Bemidji State went on to defeat the Colonials 2-0 Friday night at John Glas Fieldhouse.

“It was kind of ugly early on, but I felt that we got gradually better and better as the game progressed,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “But we’re always happy to get a shutout and we credit this as a team shutout. We take pride in our team goals against average and I’m happy to see the hard work in practice from Monday to Thursday pay off.”

No. 11-ranked Bemidji State remained unbeaten with the victory and improved to 6-0-1 overall and 3-0-0 in College Hockey America play. Bemidji State wraps up the weekend series with Robert Morris Saturday at 7:05 p.m.

Robert Morris played its first game back in the John Glas Fieldhouse since last year’s CHA tournament championship. In that game, Read scored in overtime to lift the Beavers to a 3-2 win over the Colonials. It gave the Beavers the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament that began the memorable Frozen Four run.

“It thought it was a good first two road periods for us,” Robert Morris captain Dave Cowan said. “But we were just not good enough in the third period, especially against a team like Bemidji State with such powerful forwards … the guys on the ice need to be aware where (Read) is on the ice. He’s a good player and you can’t let him roam free or give him the space.”

Bemidji State goalie Dan Bakala had 23 saves to earn his first collegiate shutout and Jordan George scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining to ice the game for the Beavers.

Serratore said the team is not feeling any pressure after extending the current winning streak to four games and the unbeaten record to seven.

“There’s no pressure at all,” Serratore said. “I think that’s an overrated term and I think each win we have actually takes more pressure off. Each time we win in the conference, we get separation. It when you start losing that you feel pressure because you have to win the next one.”

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