Throughout this season, the Penn State men's ice hockey team's road to a second consecutive national title has been laden with detours and potholes.

Key injuries before critical games and a grueling stretch of six games in 11 days are just a few examples.

Still, the Icers have been able to overcome these obstacles and are in prime position to make another run at the ACHA championship.

But the No. 2 Icers will encounter their biggest roadblock this weekend as head coach Joe Battista and his squad travel to the Great Lakes State to tangle with No. 8 Michigan-Dearborn and No. 1 Eastern Michigan.

The puck drops at 9 p.m. at The Dearborn Fieldhouse and at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

"We need our strongest performance of the year," Battista said. "We have to bring our A game this weekend. These games are huge.

"Michigan-Dearborn is trying to get into the upper tier of the seedings and Eastern Michigan, if they beat us, pretty much locks up the No. 1 seed."

This weekend's matchups are far different than the ones the teams encountered earlier this season.

The Icers (17-3-2) handled the Wolves (11-14) twice during the two teams' mid-November double dip by a combined score of 16-7 at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion without the guidance of Battista who missed the games due to an illness.

Against the Eagles (25-1-2), the Icers suffered their first two defeats of the season — a pair of 4-3 losses — without All-Americans Alon Eizenman and Josh Mandel as well as second line center Paul Sealock.

"We've got four players in the lineup now that we didn't have then," Battista said. "We've got Josh, Alon, (Justin) DePretis and Dant Hirsch so we have a different look. At least on paper we're deeper and have a lot more firepower in the lineup."

Eizenman said he expects a tough weekend but enjoys playing against this level of competition.

"Eastern Michigan is the No. 1 team and we traditionally have trouble winning in their rink," he said.

"Traditionally they're very strong and this year they have one of the best teams I've ever seen of theirs.

"I love playing against the top teams in the league and at least right now, they're tops, so I'm really looking forward to playing them especially since I didn't get the opportunity earlier this season."

Battista said this weekend is similar to last season's ACHA final four when the Icers had to face the Wolves in the semifinals the night before tangling with the Eagles in the title game.

"The only difference is Eastern Michigan had to play Ohio in double overtime and this year they're playing West Virginia on Friday night," he said. "I think we're going to have the tougher of the two games on Friday night.

"I'm going to be West Virginia's biggest fan on Friday night," Battista said.

"I hope they really make Eastern work for everything."