This weekend's three-game trip to Maryland didn't count in the league standings for the Lady Icers.

They did, however, mean a lot.

For starters, Penn State wanted to get some points entering this week's critical two-game home series with Rhode Island.

And the Lady Icers, currently sitting in the No. 12 spot in the ACHA national rankings -- the top 12 ranked teams make the end-of-season ACHA women's national tournament -- don't want to add to their four losses on the season.

"We're literally like a bubble team in the NCAA basketball tournament," assistant coach Will Gigante said. "We've got to keep winning."

Three 7-0 wins, two of them against the Maryland Friday and Saturday and a victory early Sunday morning against American, gave the Lady Icers a nice boost heading into the URI series.

Penn State (12-4-1) won the games without Icers coach Chris Whittemore behind the bench.

Whittemore's day job as manager of the Greenberg Ice Pavilion kept him in town this weekend overseeing preparations for the annual Nittany Lion Invitational hosted by the Penn State Icers.

Gigante said it would have been easy for the players to mail it in without Whittemore behind the bench. To their credit, he said, they didn't.

"They put forth a lot of effort when they were tired and cold," Gigante said.

Penn State's most impressive performance of the trip might have come yesterday against American.

The game was held at the outdoor Wheaton, Md., Ice Rink with a 6:15 a.m. faceoff. The temperature at game time: 12 degrees.

If American thought the Ice Bowl-like conditions would help the home team, it was wrong.

Penn State slammed a ludicrous 88 shots on net over the next two hours.

A vast talent difference between the American and Penn State rosters aided that explosion, but the total is nonetheless impressive.

In contrast, Penn State sophomore goalie Tara Wheeler saw just 12 shots on net in all three games combined.

"We were able to maintain control over our defensive zone [all weekend]," Gigante said. "That didn't allow them to get clean shots on the goalie when they had the chance to get shots on net."

The scoring was balanced over the weekend, but several players notched their first goals of the season, including junior Jennifer Beck, who recently moved from defense to forward. Freshman defenseman Dana Voelker also scored her first goal of the season Friday.

In addition, recent transfer Ashleigh Kinder, who joined the team for the second semester, scored her first goal in Lady Icer threads.