Anyone that's familiar with the Penn State ACHA Div. I Icers knows that watching it win only one of its last four games is highly unusual.

Last season, the Icers opened with 20 consecutive victories. This year, they've already suffered defeat at the hands of Rhode Island and Michigan-Dearborn -- and have gone 1-2-1 in their last four contests.

"You just have to get back at it and get back to work," co-captain Brett Wilson said. "I think being an older guy and a leader, it's just showing the new guys that we can rebound from a loss like that."

Penn State will have its opportunity to get back on track this weekend as it will square off against No. 18 Delaware at 7 p.m. today and, again, on 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Fightin' Blue Hens roughed up Penn State last year as Delaware actually bested the Icers, 7-1, in November. But the win was overturned when it was discovered the Blue Hens had an ineligible player.

"Last year, we really had a bad stumble down there," Icers coach Joe Battista said.

So far, Penn State has been forced to deal with seemingly unstoppable goaltending. Rhode Island' Anthony Feyock collected 38 saves in a scoreless tie, and Michigan-Dearborn's Jason Ryan stopped 44 shots a week later to help upset the Icers.

And it's not going to get any easier this weekend.

"We're about to face another goalie, Mike Verdi, who last year down there had our number," Battista said. "We scored three goals in two games against him."

The Icers have also struggled on offense as of late. In three of the last four matchups, they haven't even been able to record more than two goals.

In the first nine games of the season, they tallied 64.

Battista partially attributed that change to the Icers becoming a bit cocky with their offensive performance.

"Unfortunately, well I shouldn't say unfortunately, we got off to such a good start," Battista said. "We had a lot of success scoring goals, but all of a sudden it's easy to get away from our priority, which is defense."

Penn State seems to be a lot more concerned with last weekend's defensive showing than with the offense's performance, though.

Michigan-Dearborn's goalie, Ryan, was as efficient as a brick wall -- and there wasn't a whole lot the Icers could have done in response to squeaking out only two goals in 44 shots.

But the defense is another story.

The Icers' blue-liners allowed three backdoor goals against Michigan-Dearborn. And, in both losses this season, Penn State as had a problem with the odd-man rush.

Battista believed this was somewhat due to his defense's over-aggressiveness and likened the situation to a cornerback in football who's constantly vying for the interception instead of the simple deflection.

"Sometimes when you gamble, it pays off," he said. "But it's a high-risk, high-reward type of thing.

"There's a time to make a play, and there's a time to contain."

Penn State's offense clearly isn't as dominant as it's been in the past, but the goal for the Icers still remains the same: to win a national championship.

"I said, 'Y'know what? We had a team in 1990 and 2000 that didn't have the offensive talent this team has,' " Battista said. "But they won championships because of their commiment to defense and their strong goaltending.

"There's no reasn why we can't do the same thing."

But, first thing's first -- they'll have to get past the Blue Hens this weekend before they start thinking about the ACHA Title.