Junior forward Justin DePretis sat just a few feet to the left of Robert Morris (Ill.) goalie Aaron Merkle with the seconds ticking down on the No. 1 Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers' (30-2-0) man advantage, the blade of his lefthanded stick stuck to the ice.

As fellow forward Bill Downey slid the puck across the crease to him, he quickly blistered the puck, one-timing it past Merkle and into the open net for a 3-0 lead late in the second period on Saturday.

DePretis raised his arms, not in celebration but in relief. Denied multiple times earlier on the same power play from nearly the same spot, DePretis finally gotten the job done. And for the Icers, they had gotten two much-needed wins.

Having trouble opening the floodgates, the Icers used seven third-period goals this weekend to pull away from a pesky Robert Morris team, 5-0 on Friday and 7-1 on Saturday at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion on senior weekend.

However, it was Merkle, who faced 113 shots, that kept the Eagles in it for much of the weekend. Just ask DePretis.

"[Merkle] was good, he had a quick glove," DePretis said. "He showed a lot of open net, and he took it away. ... He's probably one of the best goalies we've faced all year."

For most of Friday, it looked as if another goalie, Icers freshman Chris Matteo, was going to steal the show with his rousing rendition of the national anthem before the game, as the Icers led only 2-0 after two periods on goals by forwards Brendan Roache and Pat Schaeffer.

But a goal each by the three steadfast seniors -- Curtiss Patrick, Bill Downey and Glenn Zuck -- in a span of 4:47 late in the third period sealed the win.

Backed by another shutout by junior goalie Scott Blackman, it was fitting that on this day it was the seniors that notched all five goals.

"It was definitely nice, the last Friday home game I'm going to have here in front of these fans, it was great," Roache said. "It's a time where the seniors need to start stepping up too, coming down the wire to nationals, and were going to be the leaders so we got to show the young guys how to bare down and get it done."

The young guys learned quickly on Saturday, with two goals from junior Mike Carrano and a goal each from sophomores Brett Wilson and Luke Walker, as well as DePretis.

And it was the old hat in net, senior Brian Gratz, who performed the chicken dance during an extended delay to fix the net in the second period, who kept the crowd going and Robert Morris out of the net.

So despite a slow weekend on the scoreboard by the Icers' standards and a sloppy power play that continues to worry Penn State Icers coach Joe Battista, his team got the job done when they needed to. More importantly, they got the seniors two wins.

"The only down side to me was a little too much individual stuff out there, guys last home game of the season," Battista said. "I'm going to do it myself kind of thing. But at the same time, let's face it, their goalie was phenomenal, he was outstanding, but we're relentless enough to get the job done."