If the No.1 Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers had any lingering doubt following last weekend's back-to-back defeats at the hand of No. 7 Ohio University, Friday night's first period against No. 2 Rhode Island kicked the door open just a little wider.

Penalties, missed opportunities and a fortunate bounce for URI's Tyler Reinhardt at 11:25 had Rams up 1-0 and had the fat-man-in-a-small-coat crowd at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion anxiously waiting to explode.

Over the next two periods, however, the buttons came flying off, and they probably still haven't landed.

Fueled by a four-goal second period that Penn State Icers coach Joe Battista labeled their best of the season, the Icers (22-2-0) stormed back to hand the Rams (23-1-1) their first loss of the season, 7-2, thus erasing any doubt for now as to who the real No. 1 team is.

There was also a game played on Saturday, one that saw the Icers win 5-1 over West Virginia (7-9-1) in a game that was never as close as the score indicated. However, all anyone wanted to talk about was Friday's rousing win.

"We're starting to think holy smokes, what do we got to do here [after the first period]," Battista said. "In the locker room one of the guys said sooner or later we're going to get some breaks. And I said 'no, we're going to work hard and we're going to make our own breaks, and we did.' "

On his To-Do-List before Friday's game, Battista had two things in capital letters with exclamation points -- "TEAM DEFENSE IS NO. 1 PRIORITY" and "GET SHOTS" -- things he felt his team needed to correct from last weekend.

In the second period, the Icers got right to work on Battista's list, as senior Glenn Zuck threw the puck on net, and linemate Mike Carrano was there for the rebound at 6:49 to tie the score at 1-1, as the crowd threatened to take the roof off.

Only 75 seconds later, senior Jack Weber collected a pass and from one knee, lifted the puck over goalie Anthony Feyock's left shoulder for a 2-1 lead, one that the Icers would never relinquish.

Not to be outdone, Zuck, who hopped the boards for senior Greg Windsor at the end of his penalty, gathered an errant pass back to the point by the Rams. With a man draped on him, he scored an electric breakaway goal, drawing the puck around a fallen Feyock to his backhand for a 3-1 lead at 15:32.

"We had a lot of question marks [after last week]. We really showed in our turn around this weekend that we came together as a team," Weber said. "Before we were really playing as individuals but this was a huge team win for us."

The Icers took care of the vital points Battista harped on prior to the game -- they held Rhode Island to just 16 shots while gathering 33 shots of their own, including 25 over the last two periods.

"I thought the first period against Rhode Island we didn't play well at all and I was worried but then we played more as a team than we have all year the second two periods," senior Curtiss Patrick said.

Much to Battista's -- and the fans -- delight.