Upset Weekend '92.

Four games. Four upsets.

Penn State was supposed to win the Nittany Lion Invitational, but a little team from Kingston, R.I. surprised everyone.

The University of Rhode Island (8-7-2), the only team in the tournament not ranked in the top ten of the American Hockey Collegiate Association national rankings, came in overlooked but left as a champion.

"Everyone counted us out before we got here," said Rhode Island goalie Ed Ducharme. "We used that to drive us to win. We were known as the unranked team coming in and we turned some heads."

Third-ranked Penn State (15-5-1), No. 5 Ohio University (12-2) and No. 6 Eastern Michigan (15-9-1) were heavily favored to compete for the title. Rhode Island, ranked 13th, was in the tournament mainly to fill out the brackets.

Many wondered why they weren't playing Penn State in Friday's first round. This would allow the Icers to easily advance to the finals. That was the logic, anyway.

Instead Rhode Island played Eastern Michigan in the opening round. Eastern Michigan was opportunistic in the game, building a 3-1 lead with 12 minutes to play. But Rhode Island came back and scored three goals in the final minutes of the contest to win 4-3. The game-winning goal came with 57 second left to play.

"The team kept working hard. We're not a team that scores a lot of goals in bunches," said Rhode Island Coach Joe Augustine. "We're a bump-and-grind type of team that has to work hard for a goal. We don't usually score goals like that."

Rhode Island advanced to play Ohio University, who beat Penn State, 5-4 in overtime, in the final. Rhode Island would be big underdogs for the second game in a row. But the seedings were irrelevant in this tournament.

The Rams came out strong and took a 5-2 lead into the third period. All-Tournament center Rob Mecunas scored two goals in the stretch.

But the third period was a matter of survival for Rhode Island. After an Ohio goal, Rhode Island responded with defenseman Chris Piti's second goal of the game to take a 6-3 lead.

Ohio defenseman Chad Cassel, an All-Tournament selection, scored two goals late in the game to make it 6-5 Rhode Island. The last goal came with 1:40 remaining, after the Bobcats had pulled their goalie.

Although the Rams were under great pressure they managed to hold on for the win.

"We got really lucky and played a pretty disciplined brand of hockey," said Augustine. "It was a good thing the game wasn't 61 minutes."

However, the game was marred at the end of 60 minutes. After the final whistle, the Rhode Island players skated on the ice to celebrate. A scuffle broke out on the ice and turned into a ten-minute benchclearing brawl. Rhode Island's All-Tournament defenseman John Jolls was left unconscious for a minute after being choked by a stick. He was reportedly in good condition soon after the incident.

Rhode Island's victorious weekend was not enough to catapult them into the ACHA National Championship, Feb. 26-29 at the Ice Pavilion. The top eight teams make the tournament and the Rams finished ninth in the ACHA rankings that came out yesterday. Penn State, Ohio and Eastern Michigan all made the tournament.