The situation at hand presented Icers coach Joe Battista with a dilemma that few coaches would welcome.
It was Dec. 10 and the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers had just drubbed West Virginia, 9-2, at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion. It was the last game before winter break.
The Icers' most dangerous scoring threat, Kevin Jaeger, and senior defensemen Eric Harbaugh and Joe Maglaque were leaving to go to Austria to compete in the World University Games.
The three would miss the next six games for a chance to play for Team USA.
All season long, Battista had been emphasizing that his team was in a rebuilding process -- that he had a lot of players who were untested and unproven.
Try telling that to Icers fans who have been treated to four ACHA championships in five years since the turn of the century.
Nevertheless, Battista embraced the opportunity for some of his young players to jell with each other.
"It's going to force guys to step up and play as a team," Battista said at the time.
Six games and a 4-2 record later, Battista has learned a lot about his team.
The Icers traveled to Bird Arena to face rival Ohio University to start off 2005.
Winning on the road in a hostile environment like Ohio is a rarity, but the Icers managed to split a two-game set, remarkable considering the Bobcats hadn't lost a home game since late 2003.
The very next week, the team was back home to host No. 1 Rhode Island. URI came into the Ice Pavilion at full strength because, for various reasons, the team didn't send any of its players to compete in the World University Games.
After getting embarrassed in the first game against URI, 7-1, the Icers responded with some inspired play and solid goaltending from Paul Mammola to beat the Rams 4-3 after falling behind by a two-goal deficit.
"I'll take it," Battista said. "We did what we had to do on the road at OU because it's never easy to win there. Then a big comeback win over a healthy and at-full-strength, No.-1-ranked team like URI, which was certainly one of the best performances of this whole span."
That span concluded this past weekend when the Icers won their annual Nittany Lion Invitational Tournament, beating Towson in the championship game when assistant captain Brett Wilson scored the game-winning goal with 16 seconds left.
It gave the Icers a 5-4 victory and Wilson finished off the weekend with four goals and two assists total and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
