At the time of last year's Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase game against Ohio State at Mellon Arena, Robert Morris already had six victories on their way to a 15-win season.

Going into the rematch on Friday, the Colonials had just two victories on the season, and Ohio State saw to it that it stayed that way.

Hunter Bishop, Zach Pelletier and Ian Boots all scored for the Buckeyes in the first two periods, chasing starting goaltender Wes Russell, to notch an eventual 4-0 victory and drop the Colonials to 2-6-2 on the season (1-0-1 in the College Hockey America conference).

Robert Morris was coming off back-to-back losses at St. Cloud State, where they were outscored, 11-1, last weekend.

The Colonials appeared to score midway through the first, but the goal was immediately waved off because Scott Kobialko kicked it in. Two minutes later, the Buckeyes got one that counted when Bishop beat Russell, a junior, through the five-hole to make it 1-0.

Robert Morris has yet to score the first goal in a game this season.

The Colonials couldn't sustain their strong play in the opening period and tie the score before Pelletier made it 2-0. He trailed Zac Delpe driving the net and put in his rebound at 5:19 of the second. Boots scored the Buckeyes' third with nine seconds left in the period with a wrist shot that soared over Russell's left shoulder. He was replaced by freshman Brooks Ostergard in the third.

Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney and forward Jordan Staal dropped the puck for the men's game in front of a crowd of 2,745.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Robert Morris women beat Niagara (1-9-1, 0-1-0), 2-1, to remain undefeated in the College Hockey America conference at 3-0-0 and 5-6-0 overall.

Ashley Riggs scored for Niagara in the first period, but senior goaltender Brianne McLaughlin was unbreakable from that point on, turning away a total of 38 shots. Freshman Brianna Delaney scored at 5:15 of the second period to tie it, then with 41 seconds left, senior Morgan Beikirch got a pass off her left skate, kicked it to herself, made a move around Niagara goalie Jenni Bauer and backhanded it in for the win.

"I don't think that we played our best game, but in the past when we didn't play our best game, we got exposed pretty quickly," coach Nate Handrahan said of his team, now in its fourth year of existence. "We're at the point now where we've grown as a team to where if we don't play our best game, we're still seeing a (good) result."

Last night was the third College Hockey Showcase at Mellon Arena for the men, and the first for the women.

A total of nine players between both games last night were from Western Pennsylvania. For the Robert Morris men, they were freshman Josh Jones (Scenery Hill), Furman South (Sewickley) and Ron Cramer (New Wilmington) and sophomore Denny Urban (Pittsburgh). Area products C.J. Severyn (Beaver), Matt Bartowski (Mt. Lebanon) and Sergio Somma (Plum), all freshmen, suited up for Ohio State. Severyn is a Calgary Flames draft pick and Bartkowski is a Florida Panthers pick.

The Robert Morris women had seniors Jenny Monteleone, of Fox Chapel, and Angela Kost, of Moon Township, who both started the game.

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