Talk about bringing the wood.

In a hockey world that is slowly being taken over by rules that are supposed to make the game faster and make scoring goals a premium, the Div. I ACHA Penn State Icers have found that they can play 1970s, Broad Street Bully defensive hockey and still score more than Wilt Chamberlain -- after a game.

Oh yes, they bring the wood. That is, they hit.

They hit hard and they hit often.

"When they hit you, you feel it," Penn State Icers coach Joe Battista said of his team.

But the Icers have found some sort of happy medium, in using their size, speed, and agility in perfect doses, something they seem to be able to do every time they step out on the ice.

Take this past weekend, for example.

Although it took the Icers a period to wake up, when they did wake up, it wasn't very pretty.

It was like Odysseus waking the sleeping Cyclops, except this time the Cyclops beat the goodness out of every Ohio player within a 10-mile radius and still had time to score 16 goals.

Leading the Icers in the hit department is senior defenseman Curtiss Patrick. Last Friday, Patrick made several jaw-dropping, eye-popping, teeth-rattling hits that can only be compared to hits made in Sega's NHL '95.

The one hit that got Patrick a five-minute major was a hit made after the whistle.

An Ohio player took a cheap shot on Penn State forward Glenn Zuck when, out of nowhere, Patrick flew up and laid the aforementioned wood on the Bobcat player.

"Whenever somebody does something cheap like that, I think it's good to go and let him know they're not going to do that again," Patrick said.

But don't think that the Penn State squad is a bunch of goons skating around the rink with their knuckles dragging on the ice.

Instead they are a bunch of hard-nosed players who understand that getting physical is one of the many ways that they are able to dominate opposing teams.

Battista, though, said that it is not his style to have an enforcer and use that style of in-timidation.

Instead he uses his checking line just to send a message.

"It's more of a psychological thing," Battista said.

"If they know they're getting banged, they're going to be looking over their shoulders instead of playing the puck."

So for the most part the Icers have shown this season that they can win in many ways.

They can kill you with speed and precision, like they did against Kent State University earlier this year.

Or they can mix it up and play scrappy, gritty hockey, like they did last weekend against Ohio.

No matter what style the Icers choose to play, Battista is positive that the team isn't afraid of any team in the ACHA.

"Our guys aren't going to back down," he said, "to anybody."