It’s not like there is a bronze medal for finishing in third place in Atlantic Hockey’s regular season. Robert Morris’ players and coaches are aware of that.
Especially with the conference playoffs coming up this weekend at Clearview Arena.
What the Colonials’ program achieved so far isn’t something they’ll hang a banner to recognize.
But it was a goal. A legitimate one. One that was set at the beginning of the year. A benchmark for growth.
“We wanted to finish in the top four in the conference,” coach Derek Schooley said Tuesday.
The reason for that is twofold. First of all, being in the top four of AHA guarantees a quarterfinal playoff series at home. That’s something the Colonials ended up securing with a sweep of Mercyhurst last weekend.
And just like that we have the lead!
LUKE VAN WHY!???? pic.twitter.com/hdtmdXEMR2
— RMU Men’s Hockey (@RMUMHockey) February 28, 2026
Those two wins helped sew up third place in the regular season and a best-of-three quarterfinal showdown against sixth-seeded Air Force.
“Home ice. Get a bye. We did that,” Schooley said. “Now we have to move on and put that in the rearview mirror and be prepared for a very good, very hot Air Force Falcons hockey team.”
The practicality of home ice and playoff seeding aside, there’s an element of validation to what the Colonials have done in 2025-26. It’s been just three years into the program’s rebirth, and the Colonials are already top three in the conference.
In May of 2021, the program was shut down. By March of ‘26, not only does RMU have men’s and women’s hockey again, but Schooley’s team is already hosting a postseason series and feels like it has a legitimate chance to make some noise in the postseason tournament as well.
“You’re ecstatic. You’re happy for the players. You’re happy for that staff, all the people that have invested so much to get the program back,” Schooley said. “I’m really proud of the guys for the response they’ve had in the second half of the season (after going 0-7-1 nonconference).”
For the Colonials skaters who have been on Neville Island since the program resumed competition in October of 2023, seeing the fruits of their efforts blossom before they even get to their senior years is rewarding.
“We had a really cool opportunity as a freshman class to kind of grow together and build a culture here up to what it is now,” junior captain Tanner Klimpke said. “You’ve seen us take big strides as a group each year. We’re a confident group. We believe in this group.”
In order for the Colonials to win the AHA and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014, not only would they have to beat Air Force, but they’d have to clinch another best-of-three semifinal series next week, and a one-game conference championship March 21.
“Let’s win five more games. If there are things that we need to clean up, then that’s after the season,” junior winger Jackson Reineke said. “We think we have the group. The way we are playing right now, we think we can do it. Just stick to what we are doing.”
In 2024, Year 1 of the program’s relaunch, RMU finished last in Atlantic Hockey, but did score a one-game qualifying-round upset of Bentley before falling to RIT. A season ago, RMU improved to 10th place, but lost a double-overtime qualifying round contest at Air Force.
This year, the players said they could feel the team coalescing after Christmas.
“The beginning of January, we had another tough overtime loss (3-2, Jan. 10) at RIT. We were just sick of losing close games,” Reineke said. “We knew we had to mature as a group. We did that around that time. Once we did that, we started winning.”
Starting with a Jan. 16 contest at Army, the Colonials (45 points) ended up gathering points in 11 of their final 14 games to surge from a qualifying-round position all the way up to third place in the conference behind only Bentley (53) and Sacred Heart (48).
“After Christmas (when the team was 4-10-2 overall), we just flushed everything out from the first half. We just focused on this half and the playoffs,” forward Michael Felsing said. “The camaraderie around the team, we all love each other a lot. Everyone is really close now. That’s the biggest thing from the beginning of the year.”
More importantly than results so far this season, though, the sense around the locker room is that the efforts made to rejuvenate the program in a short time have led to a foundation from which the Colonials can once again become the perennial contender within the conference that they were before the shutdown.
“If you didn’t tell me that this program was shut down a few years ago, I never would’ve guessed it. The guys here that have rebuilt this culture have done a really good job,” freshman defenseman John Babcock said. “Everyone buying into their roles, playing the game that makes this team successful? That’s something we can build off next year.”
Fortunately for this iteration of the team, “next year” doesn’t have to start the first weekend of March. Now the question becomes, how long can they make this year last?