For Robert Morris Hockey in 2025-26, the goal is 'to be who we say we are'

Robert Morris hockey coach Derek Schooley has seen the predictions for his team in Year 3 of the relaunched program.

The Colonials have been slotted anywhere from second to ninth in the 10-team Atlantic Hockey America conference.

“We are somewhere between there on all of it. We’ll find out where the true Colonials are,” Schooley said. “I saw this on an SEC documentary this summer: ‘Be who we say we are.’ We say we are better than we were last year. We say we are a home playoff bye in the first round. Now it’s time to be who we say we are instead of just letting other people dictate who we are.”

After a 10-20-5 record in the second year of the rebuild, Schooley’s Colonials will have an opportunity to prove their believers right — and their doubters wrong — beginning this weekend with a set of preseason games against Bowling Green on the road Saturday night, and Waterloo (Ont.) on Sunday afternoon at home.

Then they have a week off to work on whatever needs to be fixed before a grueling pair of weekend series on the road against No. 12 Michigan and Notre Dame over the next two weeks, before conference play gets underway on Halloween against Niagara.

“We have eight practices before we play Michigan (Oct. 16). So we have the opportunity to fix what we see on video and what happens in exhibition games,” Schooley said. “Everybody is going to get a lot of opportunities and a lot of ice time. We’ll put some things on tape and lead into Michigan and Notre Dame. When we come out of there, hopefully we’ll have a high pace and it’ll set us up for Atlantic Hockey play right off the bat.”

If there is one area where Schooley thinks this edition of the Colonials can be better, it’s depth — particularly in their own end of the rink.

“We didn’t have as much depth last year. When we had injuries, it really hurt us,” Schooley said. “We have upgraded our blueline, and we have upgraded our goaltending. We’ve got a lot of guys who have played a lot of hockey around here.”

In net, goalie Croix Kochendorfer is back after appearing in 23 games last year (.906 save percentage, 2.96 goals against average). He’ll be battling Union transfer Lucas Massie and promising 6-foot-6 prospect Charlie Schenkel for starts this season.

On defense, Schooley returns six blueliners. They’ll blend in with two Swedish transfers: Rasmus Larsson (Northern Michigan/New York Rangers) and Max Wattvil (Merrimack), plus freshman John Babcock.

For the players who have been with the team since it restarted in 2023-24 following a two-year shutdown , this year’s campaign has a different feel.

“I think (the coaches) definitely enjoyed that part of recruiting,” defenseman Michael Craig said. “It wasn’t just looking at guys for one-and-done years. It was looking at guys who want to be a part of your program for the next three or four years. Guys are going to step in and contribute right away, and then you can develop them into the player that the program needs.”

Most importantly for RMU, the returning skaters want to build on some of the strides they took in the second year of the program’s rebirth.

“I think the biggest one is consistency,” winger Tanner Klimpke said. “We’d have a good first game on Friday and then come out flat the next Saturday. It’s kind of staying even-keeled — getting up on the second day and not letting those games get away from us. I think it’s just buying into our system more, eliminating errors within our system that end up with the puck in the back of the net.”

The opportunity to prove the growth of the program against big-time opponents such as Notre Dame and Michigan has been driving the Colonials through offseason practices.

“We put up a good fight in North Dakota last year (losses of 4-3 OT, 1-0) and Minnesota the year before (losses of 4-2, 4-1),” forward Cameron Garvey said. “So we’re looking to finally knock off one of those top-tier programs. If we can get that done in the next couple of weeks, I think that’d be great for a group.”

And to Schooley’s previous point, it’ll be a prime chance for the Colonials to “be who they say they are.”

LISTEN: Tim Benz interviews RMU hockey coach Derek Schooley.