With No. 1 Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers (30-2) looking to increase their lead to three goals on the power play, Robert Morris (17-20-3) needed goaltender Aaron Merkle to come up with some big saves and keep it in the Saturday's game.

After stopping a barrage of shots, Merkle was given a chance to take a breather as he continued to deny the Icers and covered the puck.

During the stoppage in play, while the referee looked to fix a hole in the upper left corner of the net, seemingly the only place he could be beat, Merkle popped his mask up and asked, "What's the score?"

Many people may think he was trash talking but he wasn't. During the stoppage, Merkle noticed the Detroit Red Wings/Colorado Avalanche game was on a television off to the side of the rink and wanted to know if the Red Wings were winning.

It's hard to imagine this freshman goaltender could be so calm as to even notice the television after being peppered with shots, not just Saturday afternoon, but all weekend. He saw a total of 113 shots, stopping 101 of them.

"I just went out and tried to play my game," Merkle said. "These guys are good. That's what I expected, a lot of shots this weekend, so I just tried my best."

Just glancing at the scores from this weekend, Penn State winning 5-0 and 7-1, would be misleading. Merkle's play frustrated the Icers and kept Robert Morris in both games through the first two periods.

"We put a lot of shots on him," Penn State's Justin DePretis said. "Usually some of those would have gone in. We had some quality chances and he made a lot of big saves."

Time and again, when it seemed as though the Icers would expand their lead, Merkle would say otherwise.

"I thought he was outstanding," Penn State Icers coach Joe Battista said. "He kept making one big save after another. It forced us to play at an increased level of focus and concentration."

Merkle came into the weekend knowing what to expect and the Icers delivered. But he wasn't too disappointed with the losses.

"It's not one of our best weekends, but it was one of our better ones," he said. "My goal was to keep the games close all weekend. You can't do too much against these guys. You just want to keep it close and hope for some lucky bounces."

Those lucky bounces never came for Robert Morris, who only managed to score one goal all weekend, giving little help to Merkle's cause. In the end, it was the third period that did the Eagles in.

Despite the best efforts of Merkle, the pressure of the Icers eventually wore down his defense, which fell apart in front of him, allowing seven goals in the third period, four of which were on the power play.

The solid goaltending of Merkle served as good preparation for the Icers in the eyes of Battista.

Not only did Robert Morris play well going into the third period, but it reinforced Battista's constant preaching that you can't always control whether or not you can score, but you always have control over how well you play defense.

"This weekend was very important [going into nationals]," Battista said. "Going into the third still being tested and knowing one bounce of the puck and they're still in the game."

With his Robert Morris squad trailing after two periods, he hoped he would receive some good news from his Wings.

"Still 3-2, 4-2, man what the hell," he said after the second period.

On Saturday, Merkle lost two games, 7-1 to the Icers, and 5-2 to the Avalanche.