It would have been the perfect season. The ice hockey club regains the title to their own Nittany Lion Invitational, seizes the National Invitational Tournament Championship after declining a bid last year, and then finishes the triple crown by winning the ICHL championship for the second year in a row -- and it almost happened.

But not quite.

The strain of playing eight games in 15 days finally took its toll as the Icers fell to Conestoga, 2-0, in the ICHL semi-finals The loss gave the club a No. 3 finish in the ICHL and left it short of a successful defense of its championship, which went to Niagara with a 5-2 win over Conestoga last night.

"You don't want to use that (fatigue) as an excuse, but there's no way you can avoid being somewhat tired from all the games," defenseman Davis Mulholland said. "It just gets very grueling ... Whether we had gone to nationals, whether that would have changed things or not, we'll never know."

Penn State got a good start in the playoffs, beating Buffalo, 6-2, on Friday. "It was the kind of game we had hoped for," Coach Joe Battista said. "It wasn't very a very physical game, it wasn't a very demanding game. We pretty much had it under control all the way. It was something that we needed, because we were tired as it was."

Forward Ross Cowan opened the scoring for the Icers in the first period, and was followed by a goal from defenseman Josh Brandewene. Forward Andy McLaughlin initiated second-period scoring with a goal 60 seconds into the period. Forward Ben Bouma added a goal to give the Icers a 4-0 lead, but two goals by the Thundering Herd shortened the lead to 4-2.

Bouma scored at 2:30 into the third, and a goal by forward Chris Cervellero sealed the 6-2 win.

Conestoga, however, stopped the Icers' title run in its tracks. The Icers were expecting a tough, physical game, and the Condors didn't disappoint.

"We knew they would be tough," Battista said. "The important thing in the first period was to establish that they weren't going to intimidate us. I think we accomplished that -- it was a very, very physical period. The two teams were really on each other's case ... that took a lot out of us. No one scored, but they controlled the play."

Nothing went the Icers' way Saturday night. At one point, an injured Rich Filar was skating to the bench. At the same time, Bouma picked up a loose puck and started to skate away with it -- and the two ran into each other. Conestoga then took advantage of the resulting four-on-two "power play" to score one of its two goals.

"It was just a great defensive game," Battista said. "We don't have anything to hang our heads over."