A week after the Robert Morris men’s hockey team had to finish a game without a goalie, the Colonials are preparing for this weekend’s games with the NCAA version of an EBUG: Emergency Backup Goaltender.
The Colonials entered last weekend’s series against Bentley with one of their goalies, Croix Kochendorfer, already injured. Dawson Smith started Friday night’s game and lost 1-0 but suffered a lower-body injury along the way. Dylan Meilun, who had been battling injuries the previous few weeks, played 56:25 of Saturday night’s game but couldn’t finish after falling behind 6-0.
Smith went in but was unable to move very much. He made two saves, but Schooley pulled him with under two minutes left, and the Colonials just played with an empty net down by six to close out the game.
“We put (Smith) in to stand there. I talked to the referee, and I just wanted the game to be over. I said let’s end this. He said, ‘I can’t do that,’” Schooley explained during his coach’s show this week. “It wasn’t fair to Dawson to play him in that scenario. Finally, I just said I’m not risking further injury to our players. So we just played without a goalie.”
Bentley didn’t score on the empty net and ended up winning by that same 6-0 score. But now the Colonials have to get ready for this weekend’s series against Niagara, and they don’t want to be stuck in the same situation. Schooley thinks that, in some combination or another, two of his three goalies will be healthy enough to play against the Purple Eagles.
But in case they can’t get healthy, Schooley got Luke Zukowski off the D3 club team. The Avonworth native grew up a Colonials fan and sat right next to the bench as a kid at games in the 1921 Club seats.
The 5-foot-10, 185-pound netminder got a call from Schooley while he was in Buffalo playing in a roller hockey tournament last weekend.
“He thought I was joking. I said, ‘This isn’t April Fools Day,’” Schooley recalled. “I used to give him knuckles on the way to the bench every game. I remember him from our hockey camp. … Now you’ll see him in a Colonials jersey. It’s a neat little story.”
Zukowski has been a student manager for the team and has gotten informal reps skating with the Colonials scratches when they stay back in Pittsburgh to work out on weekends when the team travels for road games.
“He sounded a little panicked, I would say,” Zukowski said with a laugh. “They have no goalies. And if I said, ‘No,’ they might be (out of luck). He had texted the D1 (club) coach for one of their goalies. But he said, ‘No,’ because they are fighting for a playoff spot right now.”
As of Wednesday night, Zukowski — a junior by class standing but now a freshman for eligibility standards — had yet to even practice with the team. He went through all of his NCAA paperwork and physicals on Monday and Tuesday. He wasn’t cleared until he got to class during RMU’s practice Wednesday.
He’s hoping to get at least two practices in with the team before the bus departs for Niagara on Friday morning.
“John Seifarth lives down the street from me. He was the club goalie at Penn State and got called up to the D1 team. He’s their third string now. So he told me what to expect (at practice),” Zukowski said. “He said to trust my instincts. At first, I’m going to get picked apart because I’m not used to seeing shots like that. Just work my way in. Play my game, and don’t get frustrated.”
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Even if Scholey is right and at least two of his goalies will be ready to participate this weekend, Zukowski is expected to be in uniform Saturday when the teams come back to Clearview Arena on Neville Island for the return game.
“I remember going down to games with my dad as a kid,” Zukowski said. “I grew up playing for the mite program. Then, I moved to Arctic Foxes. So it’s always been my home rink.”
From RMU mite to a college EBUG, even if Zukowski doesn’t play this weekend, the experience will be memorable.
“It’s going to be a full circle moment for me,” Zukowski said. “I always grew up loving the Colonials.”
Now, this time, when he gives knuckles to Schooley, it’ll be on the bench instead of next to it.