Entering Year 2 of their return, Robert Morris happy to 'just get back to being Colonial hockey'

For Robert Morris men’s hockey, the second season of the program’s reboot doesn’t begin on the ice until October.

It’s feeling real now, though. The schedule was released Tuesday. The roster is set.

After a return to play from a two-year hiatus last fall, the rhythm is back. The cycle is back. The calendar is back on pace.

Season 1 of the program’s resurrection is done. The offseason is giving way to 2024-25 planning.

And that’s exactly how head coach Derek Schooley wants it to be.

“We want to talk about Robert Morris hockey, where we are. Not where we were before the shutdown. That’s the exciting thing where we don’t have to talk about the past anymore,” Schooley said of attempts to cut the men’s program from the school’s budget after the 2021 season. “We just want to get back to being Colonial hockey. Not the ‘new program,’ the ‘expansion team,’ the ‘revised team,’ any of that. Just get back to being Colonial hockey. I think we’re taking another step toward doing that.”

Last year’s return from the two-year pause saw RMU go 11-25-3 with a first-round Atlantic Hockey America playoff upset win at Bentley. Schooley says just having Year 1 under the team’s belt — having an on-ice product to point at — is already yielding positive results on the recruiting trail.

“We’ve got a really good freshman class. We’ve got the ability to get the high-competitive kid who skates well and has high skill,” Schooley said. “I think we’re starting to be able to get that. There’s going to be a couple of those guys that come in, and you’re going to (say), ‘Where did that kid come from?’ The hard, tough player to play against. I think you’re going to see that. And on the blue line, you’re going to see a little bit more offense. … More puck-moving guys and puck possession.”

The Colonials also picked up six transfers. One of them, defenseman Greg Japchen from Stonehill College, is at the San Jose Sharks development camp this week.

However, Schooley is just as optimistic about the 14 returning players the club was able to retain from last year’s squad, which brought the program back to reality.

“The players that are returning know us, and know the staff and know what we are expecting,” Schooley said. “They are all players that we thought took big steps for us last year, guys that were some of our leading scorers, some of our top contributors on the blueline. … We are going to be very deep. It’s going to be a lot harder to play for us this year than it was last year. A lot of competition.”

One area that Schooley admits is a bit of a question mark is in goal. Team MVP Chad Veltri is gone from the crease after using his graduate student year at RMU.

“We have three new goaltenders. All of them are 6-foot-4 and above. We could have the largest goaltending core in the nation,” Schooley said.

Of those three, Dylan Meilun, another Stonehill transfer, has the most experience. He played in 26 games for the Skyhawks after being a D-III All-American at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He’ll be challenged by freshman Croix Kochendorfer and Dawson Smith, who was at Western Michigan last year.

As for the schedule, Schooley’s club travels to battle national power North Dakota on Nov. 22 and 23. Plus, they play in Arizona State’s Desert Classic tournament on the first weekend of January.

In fact, RMU suits up at home just twice between Nov. 5 and Jan. 14. However, from Jan. 14 through Feb. 1, the Colonials skate in seven straight home games.

Robert Morris also has a three-game exhibition series of sorts at Bowling Green (Oct.10), against Simon Fraser (Oct. 11) and against the U.S. National U18 team (Oct. 12). The USNDT will host those last two games in Plymouth, Mich.

“We’re using it as a little bit of a training camp,” Schooley said. “You are allowed to play three different types of exhibition games now. You are allowed to play against a Division-I opponent, an exhibition game against a Canadian University and an exhibition game against a national team. So we are going to play all three.”

The Colonials open the season with a home-and-home series against Miami (Ohio) on Oct. 17 in Oxford, Ohio, followed by the return game against the RedHawks on Oct. 19 at the RMU Island Sports Center.

Schooley wasn’t bashful about hoping that Miami alum Ben Roethlisberger may want to show up for that home opener at Clearview Arena. And if the Colonials’ second season back from the pause goes as well as Roethlisberger’s second season did in Pittsburgh, then everyone on Neville Island will be very happy come springtime.