Robert Morris hockey takes on one of the nation's 'blue bloods' with trip to Minnesota

Last weekend’s series against Stonehill was a measuring stick of sorts for the Robert Morris hockey team. The Skyhawks came in at 0-18-0 in their first year as a D-1 program. Meanwhile, the Colonials are in the first season of a program reboot after a two-year shutdown.

It went well for RMU, who improved to 6-13-3 with wins of 8-1 and 7-3. The program hadn’t hit seven goals in a game since 2019 against Canisius.

Now, Derek Schooley’s team has a measuring stick series of a completely different variety.

This weekend, the team is traveling out to Minnesota to see how far they have to go to be able to compete with one of the best programs in the country. The Colonials face the 12th-ranked Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena for games on Friday and Saturday night.

Minnesota has won five championships, went to the NCAA Finals last year, and has been to seven Frozen Fours since 2000.

“This is special. It’s really good publicity for our program on our way back,” Schooley said. “We are playing a Big Ten team. A team that is nationally known in multiple sports throughout the Midwest. A blue blood.

“We needed to play somebody. Why not play the best?”

Robert Morris has three players from the state of Minnesota — Jackson Reineke (Faribault), Mitch Andres (Brainerd), and Luke Johnson (Edina). They all grew up going to Gophers games and acknowledged that this weekend series is one they have been looking forward to since the schedule came out.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Andres said. “I’ve never had a chance to play in Minnesota during my college career. It’ll be nice to have a bunch of friends and family out there.

“Everyone in Minnesota grows up going to Gophers games, watching the Gophers. I always liked the Gophers. For sure, it’s a game I had circled ever since I decided to come to Robert Morris. … They get a crazy amount of support. It’s cool to be going back and playing there.”

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Andres anticipates 60 people are coming from Brainerd to see him play. Reineke admits that there may be some nerves for the trio of native Minnesota skaters, but it is something they’ll just have to get through over the first few shifts.

“I think I’ll be in awe when I get to the rink and I see all the Mariucci stuff — maybe when I get to warmups, and I look across, and I see some of the players on their team,” Reineke said. “But once the game starts, it’ll just be hockey.”

As Johnson points out, there will be very little time to warm up to the situation, given Minnesota’s overwhelming skill. Minnesota has four players (Oliver Moore, Jimmy Snuggerud, Ryan Chelsey and Sam Rinzel) who are fresh from skating with the American team at the World Junior Championships and winning a gold medal in Sweden.

“They are all really good skaters with high-end skill,” Johnson said. “A team that deep with that amount of skill will be a challenge. But we’ve just got to contain that and play the best that we can.”

It’s not like the Colonials haven’t played top-notch competition yet this year. Arizona State was at the Island Sports Center earlier this year. The Sun Devils are currently ranked 11th in the country. One lesson RMU learned that weekend is to stay out of the penalty box as much as possible when facing elite competition like that. ASU’s power play posted five goals en route to wins of 4-1 and 8-3.

“We know they are a great team with a lot of great players,” Andres said. “Even though the scores did not indicate how well we played against Arizona State, we had stretches of those games when we played well and dictated the pace of play. We have to go in with that mindset of playing our game — that we aren’t playing the Gophers, we are playing ourselves.”

RMU faced the Gophers at the Excel Center for an NCAA tournament game in 2014, a game Andres told Schooley he attended as a fan. That was a game Minnesota won 7-3 in RMU’s first NCAA appearance. Now Schooley gets to coach at Mariucci for the first time in his career.

But for him, it’s a business trip.

“We are not going there to sightsee,” Schooley said. “There is a lot of tradition and history. It should be fun for the Colonials. Hopefully, we put on a good show.”

Then, whatever the Colonials take from the experience in Minneapolis, they can apply it quickly the next weekend as conference rival RIT comes to the Island Sports Center. The Tigers are second in Atlantic Hockey, having won nine of 12 conference games.