The dam broke tonight at 84 Lumber Arena, and in its wake, Cody Wydo found himself sitting alone atop the Robert Morris scoring record book. A six-goal Colonials third period broke open a close Atlantic Hockey battle with the visiting American International Yellow Jackets Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd.
The line of Wydo, Scott Jacklin and Zac Lynch had been going through a scoring drought in recent weeks, but found a way to breakout by amassing six goals and 13 points between them.
“I thought we were back; it looked like what we were doing before,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “We had a nice little meeting with Jacklin, Wydo and Lynch today, and I thought they were really good. Each player spoke and talked about what they needed to do better and they responded and did things the right way tonight. I thought Terry Shafer was awesome in that first period; the game could have easily been two or three to nothing in the first, but he did what he needed to do. I think we needed a game like this to get our confidence up a little bit and get our guys going again.
In stark contrast to Friday night’s contest, the Yellow Jackets were the stronger team from the opening faceoff, outshooting the Colonials by a 16-10 margin. Robert Morris seemingly had no time or space with the puck, and not much in the way of meaningful scoring chances in the first 20 minutes. However, starting goaltender Terry Shafer kept the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard, making a critical save on a short-handed breakaway from leading AIC scorer Austin Orszulak.
The goal lights got prepared for their workout in the second period, and it was the Yellow Jackets who got on the board first at 2:11 when David Gandara finished a two-on-one with a shot that beat Shafer to give AIC the lead. Zac Lynch then tied the game for the Colonials at 7:25 with his 10th goal if the season on a shot between the circles that flew past Yellow Jackets netminder Alex Murray on a power play.
Alex MacMillan then put the Yellow Jackets back out in front just moments later when he elected to shoot on another two-on-one that made its way over the Colonials blue line. The goal seemed to wake up the Colonials, who then proceeded to seize momentum one shift at a time from the midpoint of the second period forward.
Junior forward Greg Gibson scored an acrobatic goal to tie the game at 15:52 when he fired a shot between the circles while falling to the ice that fooled Murray to tie the score, and almost two minutes later Lynch added his second goal of the night on a power play from the left side of the crease to give the Colonials the lead.
It was still a game up for grabs entering the final frame, but goals from Wydo and Jacklin just 32 seconds apart put the Colonials firmly in the driver’s seat with a 5-2 advantage with less than 15 minutes left in regulation.
However, the Yellow Jackets would not go quietly, as goals from Jason Popek and Orszulak would help them draw closer as the minutes wound down.
The night belonged to the Colonials however, and also Wydo, who scored his final two goals less than two minutes apart to tie and then break former scoring record holder Nathan Longpre’s 137 point mark. Robert Morris outshot American International by a 35-15 margin over the final 40 minutes en route to the weekend sweep.
“We tried to play a simpler game tonight in the first couple of periods,” American International coach Gary Wright said. “Our third period just wasn’t good at all though. I didn’t think that was us tonight; it wasn’t indicative of how we’ve been playing lately. It’s disappointing. “
