"The goal stands."

When Penn State men's ice hockey coach Joe Battista heard those words from the referee, he finally began to celebrate.

The rest of the No. 2 Icers (19-3-2, ACHA 17-2-2) started celebrating several minutes earlier when, with 14 seconds left in overtime, forward Kyle Jordan redirected a shot into the net, seemingly beating No. 1 Eastern Michigan 6-5.

But the Eagles began to protest, saying there was a high stick and the goal should be disallowed.

However, the referee disagreed and the goal stood, giving Penn State a 6-5 overtime win against Eastern-Michigan Saturday. The night before, the Icers stomped on No. 8 Michigan Dearborn 7-2 to pull off the double road victory.

"I'm really proud of them for what they did this weekend," Battista said of his team. "I'm proud of them for the effort they put forth — winning was a bonus."

But the victories came at a price as the Icers lost frontrunners Alon Eizenman and Greg Held during the weekend.

Bobby Pate, another key player in the Icers' lineup, didn't travel with the team due to an illness.

Held and Eizenman both suffered shoulder injuries in the first game of the weekend against Michigan Dearborn and neither saw ice time against Eastern Michigan.

Penn State fell behind early as the Eagles scored just three minutes into the game. But the Icers answered back as senior Mike Blevins tied the game, 1-1.

But without the team's top three penalty killers in Eizenman, Pate and Held, the Icers struggled to stay in the game and gave up two power play goals late in the period, to fall behind 3-1.

Penn State's depth shone through early in the second period, however, as freshmen Jack Weber and Justin DePretis each scored to tie the game at 3-3.

Still, the Icers were struggling to stay in the game and the Eagles punched home two late goals to regain the lead, 5-3.

"Whenever we got down against Eastern, I don't think we ever thought we weren't going to come back," Weber said. "We weren't thinking so much that we could just hold on. We were thinking we could come back."

And they did just that.

Within the first three minutes of the third stanza Weber and fellow freshman Glenn Zuck each knocked home a goal to tie the game at 5-5.

Penn State's defense was able to fend off a late period charge by the Eagles to take the game to overtime. That was where, with 14 seconds left, Jordan put home the goal to boost Penn State past Eastern Michigan, 6-5.

"In all my years of hockey at Penn State, I think that's the most gutsy win I've ever seen," Battista said. "For us to come back in a game where we were as banged up as we were, we won that game purely on heart."

Beating Michigan-Dearborn was a much easier task for the Icers, who jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, courtesy of goals by Josh Mandel and Paul Crooker.

The Wolves pulled to within one in the second period, but thanks to a plethora of power play opportunities, Jordan and DePretis scored, to make it 4-2.

Again, Michigan-Dearborn tried to pull it back and scored, making the score 4-2, but goals by Zuck, Crooker and Blevins in the third period put the game in the bag for Penn State.

The two wins puts Penn State in a good position to take over the No. 1 position in the ACHA when the next polls come out Friday.

"It really says a lot about a team to be able to overcome all the adversities we have," Battista said. "When we can come out with two wins — one against the No. 1 team in their building — and you do it with your team banged up, that speaks volumes of our potential."