The air surrounding the No. 2 Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers' 2004-2005 season will be much different than it has been in the past. There will be two very noticeable differences from the start.

The first is the No. 2 that comes before the Icers' name. This is the first time since the 1998-1999 season the Icers haven't been ranked No. 1 to begin the season.

The second noticeable difference will be the brand new banner hanging from the rafters inside the Greenberg Ice Pavilion. Just to the right of four consecutive ACHA National Champions banners will be last year's banner. However, that banner will for the ACHA National Champion Runner-up team.

"It's kind of nice to have the target off our backs," Penn State captain and defenseman Eric Harbaugh said in response to this year's ranking. "But we obviously still want to win."

The Icers step back onto the ice to try and reclaim both their No. 1 ranking and championship at 9 tonight against the No. 11 West Chester Golden Rams (2-0) at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion. Tomorrow, the Icers take to the road to battle Towson at 5:30 p.m. before rounding out the weekend with a rematch on the road against West Chester at 2 p.m.

"[West Chester] has a couple of games under their belt," Harbaugh said. "So we have to be ready to go. We need to come out of the gates flying."

Last season, Penn State dominated both the Golden Rams and Towson. In the regular season, the Icers beat the teams by a combined score of 35-5. In the ACHA National Tournament, the Icers had similar success against Towson, winning 10-1. However, last year's Icers also had much more firepower than this year's.

"Bottom line is, this is going to be a different kind of year because we lost a lot of firepower," Penn State Icers coach Joe Battista said. "We graduated four of our more prolific scorers."

The four scorers to whom Battista is referring are Glenn Zuck, second all-time in goals, assists and points at Penn State; captains Bill Downey and Curtiss Patrick; and hard-hitting forward Jack Weber.

"They'll be hard to replace because they were such great guys on and off the ice," Harbaugh said.

This may seem like a big hole to fill, but something the Icers have always been good at is making sure they have depth throughout the roster so that, whether it be graduation or injuries, Penn State will always have a solid squad.

"We lost a lot of character guys and a lot of guys that certainly had skill," Battista said. "And we've replaced them fairly well, but with young guys."

Those "young guys" include an entirely new second line that will consist of a transfer junior and two true freshmen.

However, the Icers still have plenty of scoring power. Senior forward Kevin Jaeger was first on the team in goals last year, with 36, and second in assists, with 45, putting him just behind two points behind Zuck with 81 total points for the season.

Jaeger's linemate, Justin DePrestis, could prove to be just as much a scoring threat. DePretis finished third on the team in scoring last season with 51 points, including 12 powerplay goals.

Forwards aren't the only members of the team who will be bulging twine. Senior defenseman Joe Maglaque knows how to find the back of the net as well.

As a transfer last season, Maglaque proved to be a force from the blue line with a hard shot that consistently found the net. He finished the season fifth on the Icers in scoring with 41 points.

Despite welcoming 11 new members to the roster, the Icers still have to tools to start a new line of ACHA National Championship banners hanging across the rafters.