The No. 2 Penn State men's ice hockey team is trying to say the past four games haven't been a cakewalk.

But averaging close to nine goals a game and outscoring opponents 34-0 isn't exactly rough going.

With an 8-0 blasting of Navy and a 9-0 routing of West Chester, the dominant Icers (17-3-2, 15-2-2 ACHA) became the first team in Penn State history to blank opponents in four consecutive games.

Penn State posted the other two shutouts last weekend against West Virginia in 7-0 and 10-0 decisions.

"I don't care who you're playing against," Penn State coach Joe Battista said, "getting a shutout is not that easy, and doing it four games in a row is outstanding.

"That's 264 minutes and 37 seconds of not giving up a goal — around that, not that I know exactly," he added jokingly.

Battista, who was off by six seconds, gave credit mostly to the defense that gave up a mere 74 shots in those four games. That's an average of 18.5 per game.

The Icers goaltending troop of Scott Graham, Geoff Beauparlant and Yan Clermont, can each lay claim to one of the shutouts.

But they also gave credit to the defensive corps for keeping the opposing team's offense tied up near the blue line for most of the four games.

"Coach has been stressing recently a stronger commitment to defense and I think it's helped out the team as well as the goaltending stats," Graham said.

"They're playing great in front of us so we're getting a lot of zeros on the board."

But the team knows it's not exclusively the defense that is responsible for the shutouts.

Some of the credit has to go to the goalies as well.

And perhaps no one is more deserving than Graham.

The sophomore net minder sat out both games last weekend after having a rough game against Towson -- the last opponent Penn State gave up goals to.

Between the Towson game, where Graham gave up five goals, and this weekend's games, Battista said he could see an obvious improvement in Graham's play and his confidence.

He added that it is encouraging that kind of turn around with the ACHA tournament right around the corner.

The team knows the four games it will play in the tournament will not be as easy as the past four.

But Graham said the lessons the team learned in these games can easily carry over.

"I think toward the stretch this team has always come together more as a team," Graham said.

"When it's tournament time we've made more of a commitment to defense.

"If we can continue this strong commitment to defense I think we might very well win the tournament."