at Maryland and American
9 p.m. today, 7 p.m. tomorrow at Laurel, Md.,
6:15 a.m. Sunday at Wheaton, Md.

There's nothing like an early morning Sunday face-off, especially a 6:15 a.m. start -- the kind of start time you used to face week in and week out (if you played youth hockey, that is).

The Lady Icers, who regularly host Sunday morning contests at the Greenburg Ice Pavilion, get to experience an extremely early start Sunday when they visit American University in a non-conference game.

The game at American comes on the heels of non-league games today and tomorrow against a solid University of Maryland team.

It will be a "home-coming" of sorts for Penn State.

The Lady Icers will be playing a pair of Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference teams in American and Maryland.

Penn State was in that league up until moving to the East Coast Women's Hockey League prior to the start of the season.

American (3-4-0) and Maryland (2-3-0) currently are in third and fourth place in the standings, respectively, in the DVCHC. They are tied for seventh in the ACHA East region rankings.

Maryland sophomore forward Erika Hyrowski ranks 10th in the region with 14 goals and two assists.

She is also the top scorer in the league.

The short turn-around between games Saturday and Sunday and the first three-game weekend of the season will challenge the Lady Icers.

Penn State (9-4-1) has been off since being swept in a two-game series at Massachusetts Jan. 10 and 11.

-- By Sean Smyth