Being the lowest seed in any tournament can work to a team's advantage. Since a squad in such a postion, it tends to be overlooked. It might be a cliche, but such a team has nothing to lose.

Take Navy, for instance. They are the No. 8 seed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association National Tournament. They can see them all, but they just as easily can see them all fall.

The stage is set for tonight's game as the Midshipmen will try to knock off No. 4 Penn State at 7:30 p.m. in the Ice Pavilion. Other games today are the 10 a.m. matchup between No. 3 Iowa State against No. 7 Arizona, No. 1 Michigan-Dearborn versus No. 5 Ohio at 1 p.m. and No. 2 North Dakota St. battles No. 6 Eastern Michigan at 4 p.m.

The precedent was set last year. Jeff Aikens' No. 8 ranked North Dakota State came from the bottom to knock off Arizona in the title game in Arizona.

"I'd like to do as well as (Coach Aikens) of North Dakota State did last year," Navy Coach Jim Berry said.

Navy's upset quest began yesterday against Michigan-Dearborn. But their success was minimal as Dearborn triumphed 7-2.

Berry knew coming in that his team would have an uphill climb coming into Happy Valley.

"We definitely belong at (number) eight," Berry said. "I'm hoping to come in and stink somebody. We're definitely an underdog. When you look at those top four teams yikes."

Navy won the regular season title in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association; a league which includes West Chester, Lehigh and Maryland. They finished the year with a 16-3 mark, which included a split with Arizona. But league play is ancient history now.

Statistically, Navy is led on offense by Jeff Fogarty and Tim Fetsch. Fogarty notched 29 points (14 goals) in the regular season and Fetsch (13 goals) had 21 points. Fogarty notched one of the Midshipmen's two goals in yesterday's loss.

"I only have one or two prolific goal scorers," Berry said. "But when I look across the lines, the first, second and third are pretty even scoring."

Icers Coach Joe Battista will be the first to tell someone that his team cannot letdown in the least, especially after last night's 7-1 thrashing of Ohio. Inevitably, every tournament features upsets. Remember the Nittany Lion Invitational. Fourth-seeded Rhode Island knocked off both Ohio and Eastern Michigan to take the title.

"Maybe our rink is Upset Central," Battista said. "(But) one loss doesn't mean you are out of it. Most teams feel that when you do get knocked off, you regroup and come back even hungrier."

If time is what a team needs to regroup, Navy has a lot of it. They played at 10 a.m. yesterday in contrast to tonight's evening matchup.

"You know they will be conditioned," senior captain Mike Messner said.

But it will be tough to knock off the Icers at home, where they are 15-2-0.

After watching Penn State completely dominate last night's game against Ohio, Berry said, "We'd better come out flying (against Penn State) because if we come out standing around like Ohio did, we should just pick up our jocks and head on home."