Despite not winning a league championship, the Penn State Ice Lions have something to be proud of.

They finally beat Siena College, a team they have not beaten in five years and no player on the team had done that. In the semi-finals of the Super East Collegiate Hockey League (SECHL) the Ice Lions won 4-3 in a double overtime game.

The following day the Ice Lions were defeated 5-2 by SUNY-Stony Brook in the SECHL championship game.

Head coach Mo Stroemel can remember when all the games against Siena used to be a one goal or an overtime game. The monkey stayed on the Ice Lions back this year when they lost by three goals and one goal. The game Saturday reminded him of the past games.

"It was one of the best games that I have been involved with," Stroemel said. "It could have gone either way."

The teams discussed before the game was played how overtime was going to be run a premonition that both teams thought it was going to be a close game. Siena jumped to a 2-0 first period lead, which could have had a demoralizing effect on the Lions, but they scored right before the period was over only going in down a goal.

"I thought it was going to happen again and we were going to get blown out," Jordan Katz said.

Going into the third period they were still down a goal at 3-2. They fought their way back and scored before the game was over.

"We knew the next goal was going to be big, if we got we knew we would give ourselves a chance to win," Dan Koletsky said.

The first overtime period was five minutes and produced no goals, after a brief intermission the game picked back up with a 20 minute second overtime. Less than 10 minutes into it Ralph Stoehr hit a blazing shot, on a 4-on-3 power play, in the top corner of the net for the Ice Lions victory. Stroemel talked to Siena coach Chris Casey yesterday and he said that the shot was just unbelievable.

However, the Ice Lions weren't quite as lucky in the SECHL championship against SUNY-Stony Brook.

The commissioner of the SECHL, Bill Kamp, before the game told the referees to call a close game. Both of the teams are headed to the National tournament and he didn't want any injuries.

Penn State spent 12 minutes of the first period on the penalty kill. Stony Brook is playing at the top of their game right now and could be a big force come National tournament time. They scored three goals on the power play in the win. One goal was an empty net goal to seal the victory and an errant pass through the middle led to another goal.

Penn State outplayed Stony Brook 5 on 5, but they spent a good portion of the game on the penalty kill. Stony Brook also out shot the Ice Lions 48-27, close to a 2 to 1 ratio, which was a problem.

"We finally beat Siena, which is a monkey off our back," Stroemel said. "We stayed with Stony Brook and I won't be surprised if they are in the final two at the National tournament."

Next year's monkey: The SECHL tournament.