The ice hockey team was high last Friday after it picked up its first overtime win against Buffalo State, 4-3.

The kind of high that high school guidance counselors call "natural highs." The kind of high that goes hand-in-hand with the Penn State tradition.

The Icers won't forget that feeling when Buffalo State comes calling at 9 tonight and at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon in the Ice Pavilion.

"It was so emotional in the locker room after the game," Coach Joe Battista said following the victory. "It was such a great win, to be in that locker room you would have thought we had just won the Stanley Cup."

Another overtime win against Erie Community College, 6-5, Sunday night raised the Icers' overall record to 11-10-1 and 7-4-1 in the International Collegiate Hockey League. The Bengals, who took second in the ICHL playoffs last season, dropped to 12-5 overall and 5-3 in league play in Friday night's loss to the Icers.

"We only got six league games left Battista said. "They're all crucial for us now. Obviously we'd like to have the highest seeding as we can for the playoffs."

After dropping three overtime games this season, the Icers could have let the oh-no, here-we-go-again syndrome get the best of them going into overtime against Buffalo State. Instead, the Icers regrouped, dedicated and determined to turn its woes into wows.

"Our guys played the game with a lot of confidence," Battista said. "I think they felt right from the beginning that they were going to win the game."

The Icers' defense held Buffalo State to only three goals in the last meeting and stymied the attack to just three shots on goal in the first period.

"We hit them," sophomore defenseman Josh Bandwene explained. "We hit more as a team than we had all season."

"We've been stressing defense for the last two weeks in practice, getting ready for them (last week) and getting ready for them again (this week)."

But the Icers have something else to worry about that it usually doesn't think of in a home game. When the Bengals come to the Ice Pavilion, it will almost be like its home ice.

"Buffalo State is going to be strong in our rink," Battista said. "The home ice advantage for us will only be in terms of the fans we get."

"This series has developed into quite a rivalry," Battista said. "I don't think the teams like each other very much and it means that there is going to be a good hockey game played."