Statistics can sometimes be misleading -- but they certainly told the story of this weekend's results.

The No. 2 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers (21-6-3) went 5-for-6 on the power play, while No. 4 Illinois (20-5-3) went 1-for-7. And for the Icers, those lopsided stats translated into a 2-1 Friday win and a 3-3 tie on Saturday.

"I would've liked to have won them both, but I think we got the mission accomplished," Penn State coach Joe Battista said.

The Icers have all but clinched the No. 2 spot in the national championship tournament after this weekend's performance, which set a few precedents along the way.

Penn State extended its second-longest unbeaten streak of the season to five games, while the Icers became the only team that Illinois hasn't beaten at home this year. On average, the Fighting Illini have outscored their visiting opponents by 4.7 goals.

Knowing that, Battista was pretty satisfied with the meeting's outcome -- even if the Icers did let the second game slip by.

"We could've won it," Battista said. "We did have the better of the scoring chances."

For the most part, though, Saturday's game was a back-and-forth affair.

Penn State picked up the momentum halfway through the final period, after Mike Carrano snagged teammate Kevin Jaeger's rebound and put it in the net to hand the Icers a 3-2 lead.

But it didn't take Illinois long to snatch the momentum right back -- it scored less than two minutes later when the Icers got caught in a bad line change.

"Their goalie came almost all the way to the blue line to play the puck," Battista said. "And he just fired up to [Brian] Coleman who scored."

Still, Illinois knew better than to count the Icers out.

With time winding down, Jaeger received a pass and immediately fired toward the net.

But the puck just caught the crossbar -- missing about six inches wide over the top corner -- to send the game into overtime, where Illinois had the obvious advantage.

The Illini's trademark is their speed. And that's certainly no mistake since Illinois' home rink, the Big Pond, favors quick teams. After all, its size dwarfs even that of an Olympic-sized rink.

That, in itself, is an advantage -- but overtime rules also dictate teams must utilize a 4-on-4 matchup instead of the normal 5-on-5.

"It was a tremendous advantage [for Illinois]," Battista said. "That's why I'm so proud of these guys."

According to Battista, Penn State was simply unable to capitalize off its scoring opportunities during the extra frame. But thanks to goalie Paul Mammola, Illinois wasn't able to capitalize either.

"They did have one partial breakaway, but Mammola made the save," Battista said.

Mammola had yet another solid outing between the pipes as he stopped 54 of 58 shots to remain 5-1-1 since earning the starting role three weeks ago.

"Friday night, Mammola had 31 saves," Battista said. "That was certainly one of his strongest performances of the year."

Jaeger also continued his hunt for the Icers' all-time scoring title. He recorded one goal Friday to move into sole possession of second place and is currently only four goals behind Lynn Sipe.