Winning this year's Nittany Lion Invitational will do two things for the ice hockey club: practically insure it of a bid to the National Invitational Tournament and bring the championship back home.

However, there are a couple of obstacles in the way, one of them being Maryland, which will face off against fifth-ranked Penn State at 8 tonight at the Ice Pavillion. Maryland is ranked 12th in the ICHL and also has designs on an NIT bid.

"I think our guys realize that this is our opportunity to pretty much secure a bid to the national tournament," Coach Joe Battista said. "Being ranked fifth, if we can dispose of the seventh and 12th ranked teams, it'll only solidify our chances."

Before looking to the NIT, however, the team must first beat the Terrapins, a club which Battista expects to be very psyched for the contest.

"It's how much this game means to them -- the emotional factor," he said. "If Maryland does well, it could be their ticket to getting an invitation to the national tournament."

Battista also said the players must guard against overconfidence, an opinion that is shared by defenseman Michael Messner.

"We really cannot look past Maryland. We look past Maryland, they beat us," he said.

The winner of the Penn State-Maryland game will face the winner of the tournament's opening contest between seventh-ranked Rhode Island and Penn, which starts at 5 tonight. The consolation game is tomorrow at 5, and the championship is at 8.

A game against Penn might bring back memories from earlier in the season, when the Icers ran roughshod over the Quakers in a 8-2 victory. The players, however, would really like the chance to play Rhode Island, which finished sixth in the NIT last year.

"I think if you would ask our guys who they would rather play, I think we would rather play Rhode Island," Battista said. "I think they'd just as soon get a chance at a head-to-head confrontation with them."

The Icers did not appear in last year's NIT even though they were invited; Battista felt the time would be better spent practicing for the ICHL finals.

Mercyhurst College was the spoilsport in last year's Nittany Lion Invitational, beating Penn State 9-2 in the championship game.

The Icers enter this year's tournament with a 12-1-1 record, including a big 9-3 win over St. Bonaventure Sunday, a performance that impressed Battista.

"It was as though we had never had the day off ... the timing and the passing was on target. Anytime you beat a team of St. Bonaventure's caliber as easily as we did, you did something right," he said.

Highlights of this season, which is approaching the halfway point, include the "checking line," consisting of Midge Hutchinson, John O'Conner and James Adams, which has only allowed one even-strength goal the entire season against the opponents' best lines, Battista said.