Who knew Jason Pilon was an ace hidden up Towson's sleeve?

The freshman goaltender for the No. 11 Tigers came out of nowhere and trumped what could have been a milestone victory for Penn State men's ice hockey coach Joe Battista and the rest of the No. 2 Icers.

"You have to give him all the credit in the world," Battista said. "He was excellent in net for them (last night)."

Pilon, who stands five feet and seven inches tall and weighs 170 pounds, was a brick wall in net as Towson (11-4-1) played to a 5-5 stalemate against Penn State (13-3-2, 11-2-2 ACHA) last night at the Ice Pavilion. Pilon stopped 50 of 55 shots in his first game against the Icers and left Battista still one win short of 350 career victories.

Although Penn State made short work of Towson the last time the two teams met, beating the Tigers 5-1 on the road back on Oct. 21., the Icers were wary of the Tigers this time around.

As it turned out, the Icers were right to have concerns.

Pilon, a native of Cornwall, Ontario, was not in net for the Tigers when Penn State played them earlier in the season and the Icers were not totally prepared for him when the two teams met again last night.

"He didn't seem to have much of a style," Penn State forward Bill Downey said. "He was up and down a lot and it seemed he was flopping around on the ice a lot."

Although that style of erratic play usually makes a goalie easier to score on, that didn't seem to be the case for the Icers.

Downey, who scored twice during the night, was able to take advantage of Pilon's "flopping around" when he slid a rebound shot under Pilon's belly as he laid on the ice, giving Penn State its only advantage of the game.

That was one of the few breaks Pilon gave the Icers during the game. He made up for that error by denying Penn State on three breakaways — two in overtime.

Although Battista said he didn't want to detract from Pilon's play, he said he noticed players beating themselves as they put shots directly into the net minder's chest.

Now that the Icers have made it past Pilon, they are using him as a guide to show them where they need work before taking on West Virginia at home tomorrow and Saturday.

"We'll probably be doing a lot of quick-shooting drills and some patience drills," Downey said. "I know those are at two different poles but they kind of go together.

"We weren't taking the time when he (Pilon) was down on the ice," Downey said. "If we would have had a little more patience at those times we could have scored."