{"id":30922,"date":"2010-01-14T09:08:19","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/01\/14\/this-week-in-the-cha-jan-14-2010\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:50","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:50","slug":"this-week-in-the-cha-jan-14-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/01\/14\/this-week-in-the-cha-jan-14-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the CHA: Jan. 14, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
Maybe Pittsburgh should change its moniker from the Steel City to Upset City.<\/p>\n
Seriously.<\/p>\n
Just ask the Miami RedHawks, who waltzed into Mellon Arena last Friday night to play Robert Morris in the Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase as the No. 1 team in the country.<\/p>\n
Final score: Robert Morris 3, Miami 1.<\/p>\n
Seriously.<\/p>\n
But wait, it gets better. <\/p>\n
Robert Morris ventured to Oxford, Ohio, Sunday afternoon to play Miami on its home turf. No home-ice advantage for Miami as RMU walked out 2-1 winners.<\/p>\n
Colonials goaltender Brooks Ostergard won both games between the pipes. He’d been struggling so far this year, but picked a heck of a time to bust out, wouldn’t you say?<\/p>\n
Still, Ostergard deflected any attention heaped on him in a mature team-first display of attitude.<\/p>\n
“I think this game gives our whole team a sense of confidence and belief that we can skate with any team in the country,” Ostergard said on Friday night. “This game wouldn’t have been possible without the play of our defenseman and forwards. It was a whole team effort.”<\/p>\n
Miami coach Enrico Blasi took a philosophical approach during the postgame news conference.<\/p>\n
“Give Robert Morris\u00c2\u00a0a lot of credit — they did a really good job of executing on all their chances,” Blasi said. “The name of the game is execution. They did and we didn’t.”<\/p>\n
Chris Kushneriuk scored a shorthanded goal late in the first period by burning two Miami defenders in the process.
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\n“The first thought that was in my head was just to get my feet moving so I could get some separation ahead,” Kushneriuk said. “I\u00c2\u00a0knew\u00c2\u00a0exactly what I was going to do and I was just able to flip it by him.”
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\nAt 5:02 of the third period, J.C. Velasquez finished a 2-on-1 break with Cody Crichton and then Stefan Salituro scored at 6:13, giving the Colonials insurance.<\/p>\n
After winning again Sunday, Colonials coach Derek Schooley was beaming.<\/p>\n
“I have been saying that I like our team and we were so\u00c2\u00a0close to putting it all together,” Schooley said. “This weekend, we put it together and now the challenge is to sustain it.”<\/p>\n
Sunday, Nathan Longpre and Denny Urban scored to steal the Colonials’ second straight win over the seemingly invincible RedHawks.<\/p>\n
Ostergard made 38 saves — a solid follow-up to his 39 stops on Friday night.<\/p>\n
“I think we all believed since day one that we were a very good hockey team and it was only a matter of time before we got the result we got [last] weekend,” Ostergard said to rmucolonials.com<\/a>. “It came from the coaching staff and the captains telling us to stay focused and be patient and it’ll come.” Now the big question: Can RMU follow last weekend’s performance with two more wins this weekend and make last weekend look legit? This writer believes the Colonials are just that — legit. <\/p>\n
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\nRobert Morris became the second CHA team to defeat Miami this season following Bemidji State’s 3-2 victory on Nov. 27.\u00c2\u00a0The wins also gave the Colonials their second and third wins against a ranked opponent this season and the program’s first upset of a No. 1 team.<\/p>\n