Top-ranked teams to give Icers greatest challenge yet

Blowout wins will take a back seat to tightly contested matches for the Penn State men's ice hockey team the next couple weeks as it begins a tough stretch of games against top-ranked opponents. Over the next three weeks the Icers will face off against four teams ranked near the top of the ACHA.

The toughest part of this season's schedule begins tonight when the No. 1 Icers (20-3, 16-1 ACHA) travel to Michigan to take on the No. 3 Michigan-Dearborn Wolves (21-7). Tomorrow afternoon Penn State will finish its Michigan excursion against the No. 4 Eastern Michigan Eagles (19-8-1). Looking ahead, the Icers will host No. 7 Delaware next weekend, followed by another road trip to No. 5 Ohio and No. 16 West Virginia the weekend after that.

This will be a key stretch of games for Penn State that will definitely have an impact on the rankings as the season winds down and talk about the ACHA nationals begins.

"We can come out of this ranked No. 1 or ranked No. 5 -- or worse," Icer coach Joe Battista said. "We can't rest on our laurels."

The three road trips are going to be extremely tough for the Icers. When Penn State traveled to Michigan and Ohio last season for three games, it wound up with three losses. All three games were decided by just one goal.

"This weekend is revenge," Icer forward Tom Westfall said. "It's redemption time."

Earlier this season the two teams from Michigan traveled to Penn State. The Icers brushed the Eagles aside 4-0 and 10-1. Penn State defeated rival coach Joe Aho's Michigan-Dearborn squad 10-0 in its first game this season but lost the second game 5-3. Battista said the first game against the Wolves was an aberration and it probably won't happen again this year.

"We know the 10-0 game was not an indication of Michigan-Dearborn's abilities," Battista said.

In that game the Icers got out to a 4-0 lead. When the game looked to be out of reach in the third, the Wolves decided to set a tone for the next game. Five power-play goals later, another Penn State rout was on. The next day was a different story, however, as the Wolves surprised the Icers and their fans by winning 5-3.

"If you let your guard down, that's when you lose," Westfall said. "They were prepared and had a good game plan. We thought if we just showed up, we'd win."

Battista said Michigan-Dearborn is a big, physical team that matches Penn State with four solid lines.

Eastern Michigan is coming off of two losses to Ohio last weekend. The Eagles lost the first game 6-1. Part of the reason for the lopsided score was the absence of three of the team's top players from the game due to suspensions for fighting the week before. The next day Ohio scored the game-tying goal with about one second left in the third period, then went on to win 3-2 in overtime.

The losses will definitely hurt the Eagles' ACHA ranking. But if they can find a way to beat Penn State, their standing in the league might not drop much.

"Their backs are against the wall now," Battista said. "They want to win. They have all the incentive in the world to knock off the No. 1 team."

Westfall said the Icers are focused on keeping the No. 1 ranking going into nationals. He said it makes the route to the championship a lot easier. But keeping their grasp on the No. 1 spot in the ACHA will be hard to do.

"If you're No. 1, you're the big dog," Westfall said. "And everyone wants to beat the big dog."