When the first puck drops tonight at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion, the Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers will be in an unfamiliar position.

It will be the first time all year the team will enter a new weekend without winning a game the previous week.

"From a team point of view, we put last weekend behind us, we took what we could from it ... and we're going to move on and try to start another winning streak," assistant coach Chris Schmale said.

After starting the season 9-0, the Icers lost 4-2 in the midst of playing their worst game of the year last Friday when they traveled to unbeaten Rhode Island for a two-game series.

Head coach Joe Battista said his team lacked passion in the first game against Rhode Island, and senior Kevin Jaeger said the long bus ride affected the team's play to an extent.

After giving up four goals in the first game (three of which were on odd-man rushes), sophomore goalie Paul Mammola recorded the Icers first shutout of the season the next day.

"Saturday, he just played phenomenal, he made big saves in big situations," Schmale said.

Only problem was the Icers still didn't win.

In part because of 38 saves registered by last season's ACHA rookie-of-the-year, Anthony Feyock.

Even though the Icers are used to scoring a lot of goals, they pride themselves on solid goaltending and good defense, an attitude they get from their coach, who is a former defenseman himself.

The team will now set its sights on No. 15 Michigan-Dearborn as the Icers welcome the Wolves to the Greenberg Ice Pavilion this weekend.

The Icers, who as of late have been hit hard with injuries, will be without the services of Greg Schwind for the rest of the season. The junior center broke his leg in two places last weekend.

Because of the loss, junior forward Brett Wilson will now move to center to fill the void left on the Gold Line.

Newly promoted assistant captain Teague Willits-Kelley will likely move to center on the White Line to take the place of injured sophomore Dan Mckeen, who is listed as day-to-day.