It's hard to ask a team to win four games in as many days. But that, indeed, is what Penn State ACHA Division I Icers coach Joe Battista asked of his team two weekends ago in Illinois.

The closest the team had come to playing that many games on consecutive days was a three-game, three-day stretch back in October, during the first weekend of the regular season.

Legit champions hate the term "runner-up." Sure, second-place means a team's done better than everyone else but one team, but when a club loses by a goal in a championship game two years in a row, it doesn't feel that way.

Let Icers assistant coach Chris Schmale tell you.

It's been three years now that he's lost in some sort of championship game by a goal. He just finished his second year as an assistant with the Icers but before that, as an assistant at Morrisville Junior College, he also lost their championship game by a digit.

Eight straight years and counting. That's how many years in a row the Icers have been in the final game of the ACHA season. That isn't a mistake.

Before the tournament started Battista said all the pressure was on other teams. He said it was on Illinois for as the No. 1 seed. He then said it was on Ohio University -- the Icers' rival -- for being the defending champion.

Truth be told, teams gear up for the Icers. When the schedule comes out, they circle blue and white like it's a wedding date.

Chris Tasic is a hockey player for Robert Morris College, the host school for the tournament. The Icers played Robert Morris in the second round and Tasic's assignment was to "shadow" the Icers' all-time leading goal scorer, Kevin Jaeger.

The shadowing turned into more of a brutal stalking, as Jaeger was beat up the entire game. It got so bad that, during the third period, when the Icers had the game in hand, Battista sat Jaeger on the bench for fear of him getting injured any further.

As the teams shook hands afterwards, Tasic approached Jaeger in the line and said "Sorry man, but it was part of the job description."

Who's the favorite?

In the semifinal game the Icers took on rival Ohio. Under his white button-up shirt Battista wore a T-shirt with the phrase "WE OU" emblazoned on it. In late October the Icers' marketing staff organized a whiteout passing out those shirts at a home game against the Bobcats.

It's an understatement to say that PSU versus OU is big. But maybe playing a big-time rival the day before a championship game isn't the most suitable scenario.

"Ohio's a tough team to beat so I think that took so much out of us that playing [Illinois] we didn't have full energy," Jaeger said.

In fact, Illinois is the first school other than Penn State or Ohio to win a national championship in 10 years.

"I'm disappointed we didn't win it, but Illinois played really well," Jaeger said. "It's just the way the puck went."