Preseason or not, the RMU Colonials look ready to go. A nine-goal win in a shutout looks good at anytime, but particularly good against a Ryerson club that nearly came away with a win against the Miami (OH) Redhawks the night before (only to fall in the final seconds of that game, 4 to 3). RMU head coach Schooley is stressing an "up tempo" style with this team, not your typical Colonial squad which we have seen in the past. The team extremely explosive, playing sharp all game long. A few miscues here and there, but overall a very high grade.

Jersey worn: Third Alternate Grey with Colonial Head Logo

From the first Period:

From the start of the game, the Colonials put together a very aggressive up-tempo style of play. Each line seemed to be split between veteran players with a few of the new guys; coach Schooley did not make any lines of freshman players, which we could see as the season goes on. It's a good start to have the mix of veteran leadership on the lines with the young guys, plus they looked real solid.

Both goals in the first were power play goals, good to see Cody Chrichton getting time with the man advantage, especially since he scored. Freshman Trevor Lewis showed good vision on the ice, coming to RMU he seems to be known for his scoring but he put together some great team plays, one in particular that didn't quite pan out, he put a pass towards the net very similar to the Alexander Ovechkin goal from (I believe) his rookie season. Not exactly the same, but it was the effort that counted to put the puck in front of the net.

Matt Krug looked sharp taking great shots from the point, unfortunately they didn't hit the back of the net, but it is great to see a hard shooting defensemen taking the opportunity to just pummel the goaltender with hard slap shots.

Second Period:

Fifty-one seconds in on the five-minute power play for Robert Morris (on a sloofooting penalty), another goal this time by Chris Kushneriuk, who also played a really solid game for the Colonials (he added another goal later in the game as well), he put in a rebound goal in lots of traffic off the Ryerson goaltender's pads.

Scary moment when Nathan Longpre got upended in the defensive zone, it looked like he could have landed on his head but he managed to keep his balance, somehow while in mid-air and pretty much landed on his skates, anybody else probably would have broken their neck.

Second great play of the night has to go to Denny Urban. Late in the second, Urban picked up a turnover putting together a great pass over to Chris Margott then to Trevor Lewis down by the net for a one-timer. Man was that pretty, one of those things where you tingle a little bit thinking, if they can do this the entire season, need I say more.

The play of the night happened in the second period; it's not even fair to give it away this soon, but you had to. Chris Margott takes the puck from the defensive zone deking and skating his way into the offensive zone, making about three guys miss on some pretty sick moves only to dish it off to Denny Urban and then a quick one-timer pass over to Jason Towsley for the goal. Once again, ridiculous with this whole pass, pass and one-timer.

Third Period:

Not going to lie, it was pretty boring, as the Colonials were still in complete control but pulled back (as they should have) so they wouldn't completely creme Ryerson. Three more goals were scored, mostly because Ryerson was spending so much time in the penalty box try frustrating themselves throughout the game.

The Things that Matter:

Robert Morris had every opportunity to score, especially on the power play, and they took every advantage of it going six for ten, not bad for the first game. RMU only had five penalties, that is great. Last year's team was plagued by penalties at crucial moments, a great start on the advantage gives the young guys a good look at a solid team style.

Jason Towsley looked great as well. Many people kept telling me that if you watched him in practice, you could see that he is just waiting to break out and start scoring, I hope he keeps it up.

Team-wise overall, I was really impressed with the positioning on the ice of the young guys, as well as their poise and demeanor. There wasn't a lot of over aggressive cheating to get to the right spots, guys were trusting each other, and building on that is key. Trust where your teammates are and you will win games.

The only downside to the game, it is really tough to judge how both Wes Russell and Jim Patterson looked in net, only because they didn't see a lot of shots. In two periods, Russell saw seven shots and in the third when Patterson came in he saw five. Here is what I did see, two verbal goaltenders staying on top of when guys were getting out of the box on the power play, very conscious attention to the defense coming back to set up plays. It's going to take time to really see where these two are at, I do not expect to see a lot of Brooks Ostergard right away, but we could you never know.

The Box Score:

The Colonials out shot the Rams, 47-12, putting up nine goals. Ryerson committed 13 penalties for 45 minutes, compared to RMU's five penalties for only 10 minutes. When RMU was in the box, the tempo of the game shifted, but not drastically, they still managed to keep a tight focus on the puck, but against stronger power play squads from other opponents, this could be a different story.

Three Stars:

1 - Jason Towsley
2 - Chris Kushneriuk
3 - Trevor Lewis