For the 24th time the doors of the Greenberg Ice Pavilion were opened at the commencement of a new season Friday night. The skates were sharpened a bit more precisely, hockey sticks taped a tad thicker.

It's been less than a year and the jersey numbers have already been switched. No longer are there familiar names like Zuck, Downey and Depretis, three of the top five scorers from last season. They may be gone, but the results remain the same.

Same ol' Icers.

Unlike many other Penn State teams, which have considerable question marks coming into a season, it's known what to expect from the Icers. We know that since the beginning of this century, more often than not the Icers have been the better team every time they've taken the ice.

We know that March 7, 2004, still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of the Icers players who remember that day so vividly. That day, the last time the Icers lost, the last time the team was ranked No.1, a day they came up short in the final round of the ACHA Division I National Championship game to Ohio University.

Still, every time this team takes the ice, it expects to win, and Friday's season opener was no different. The Icers didn't disappoint their fans as they cruised to a 7-3 victory over the visiting No.9-ranked West Chester University Golden Rams in front of a capacity-filled crowd.

The only advantage that WCU would have when the first puck dropped at 9:14 against the No. 2-ranked Icers was that it was their third contest of the season and the first for the Icers.

That's about it.

For it being the first game of the season, there were some issues of rust that the Icers battled throughout the game. But nothing remotely close to indicating WCU had a chance to win one.

After giving up the first goal of the game, the Icers would gather themselves and never look back .

Icers forward Kevin Jaeger, who was second on the team in scoring last year with 81 points led the way with two goals and one assist. The senior All-America n looks like lightning on skates.

"They beat the hell out of him... and he still had two goals and an assist," Icers head coach Joe Battista said.

It seemed as if the two teams were already in mid-season form in terms of physical play. This game saw 34 penalty minutes combined between the two teams and hits that would make The Beatles jealous.

The dawn of a new season also witnessed the debut of newly transferred goalie Paul Mammola. Mammola was solid, giving up three goals on 20 WCU shots, two of which came on Penn State turnovers deep in its zone.

The team would have no time to think about its victory because the next day it would travel to Towson University where the Icers would handle Towson easily by a score of 6-2. Veteran defenseman Joe Maglaque tallied an assist and his second goal of the young season to help the Icers.

The team wrapped up the weekend against the team in which it began. After handling West Chester easily on Friday, the Icers had the same result in yesterday's game, scoring one more goal and giving up one less goal in beating the Golden Rams 8-2. There were no signs of fatigue as the Icers turned in their best performance of the weekend. "It was our best effort yet," Battista said.

The Icers will travel to Saint Clair College in Ontario on Friday.