Coming off of an impressive showing of character and poise in their win at Eastern Michigan last weekend, the Penn State men's ice hockey team returned home this past weekend for a pair of games with No. 9 Delaware.

For some reason though, this didn't look like the team that took down the ACHA's top-ranked team.

"We played our best team effort of the season against Eastern Michigan," head coach Joe Battista said Friday. "This was probably our worst team effort. We were playing like 20 individuals instead of a team."

Still, the No. 2 Icers (21-3-2) found a way to overcome their problems by defeating the Blue Hens (13-12) in both games, both by a 4-3 margin.

In Friday's game, the Zamboni was barely off the ice before the Icers jumped out to a huge lead.

Fifty-seven seconds into the game, Glenn Zuck skated through the Blue Hens' zone uncontested and put home the Icers first goal on the first shot of the game.

Dave Tunon tacked on another goal--on the Icers' second shot of the game--two minutes later.

Neal Price made it 3-0 just four minutes into the game, prompting the Blue Hens to replace goalie Bjorn Christiano with Lance Rosenberg.

Price was playing in his first game since tearing his ACL in the preseason.

"It took a few minutes to get used to the pace again, but after the first few shifts I felt really good," Price said.

The Blue Hens responded early in the second period on Dan Howard's goal to cut the gap to two.

But Dant Hirsch netted his first goal as an Icer four minutes into the second making the score 4-1.

Howard knocked home his second goal of the game on a power play with just over four minutes left in the period to bring the Penn State lead back to within two goals with a score of 4-2.

Howard's second goal and a series of penalties and trash talking seemingly took the Icers out of their game.

"I think the worst thing that happened to us today was jumping out to the 3-0 lead," Battista said. "We forgot to play the rest of the first period and in the second period, we just took a lot of bad penalties.

"I would bet that probably all but five or six minutes of the second period were played at less than full strength."

The jawing and rough play continued into the third period as both teams were unable to score until Delaware's Nick Burke was credited with a goal that bounced off his hand and trickled past Geoff Beaurparlant to trim the Icers' lead to 4-3.

But the Icers' defense was able to stave off the Blue Hens for the last minute and a half to give them their twentieth victory of the season.

"Give them credit," Battista said. "They played with desperation. This game meant a lot to them."

The weekend's second contest was equally competitive.

Matt Panzarino put the Blue Hens on the board with five minutes left in the first period.

Icer Bill Downey responded to make it 1-1 with just under seven minutes remaining in the second stanza.

Hirsch drove home a slap shot three minutes into the third to give the Icers a 2-1 advantage.

Downey tickled the twine for his second just two minutes later extending the Icers lead to 3-1.

But just like the night before, the Blue Hens came charging right back.

Chris Ferazzoli pulled Delaware back within one with seven minutes left and Geo Harris knotted the game at 3-3 on a shorthanded goal with just under five minutes left in the game.

But Kyle Jordan put home a power play goal 17 seconds later to cap off the Icers' 4-3 win.