Down 2-0 in the second period, the Icers' go-to-guys on the red line started the scoring. Freshman Luke DeLorenzo retrieved the puck behind the net, and with St Clair's goalie out of position, the freshman was able to bank a shot off the goalie's back and into the net.
The goal was set up by a shot from the point by freshman defenseman Scott Dekan. The freshman got the nod to play in Saturday's contest from Penn State coach Joe Battista because he was looking for more speed.
"I went with Dekan partly because of his puckhandling," Battista said. "He took a shot from the point that set up the first goal -- he made a great play just to keep it in the zone."
The red line was at it again to tie the game at two goals apiece late in second period on the power play. DeLorenzo took a long lead pass from defenseman Kyle Mills and put the puck on net. He gathered in his own rebound and shot again, and when that shot was also denied his linemate, junior Mike McMullen slammed the puck home.
The play was set up by Mills' long outlet pass, something the team had worked extensively on during practice -- creating offense on the fly from behind the net.
"They did the exact thing we expected, they trapped quite a bit, they even did a very aggressive trap on their penalty kill," Battista said. "We thought we had the right answers for it, we just didn't execute.
"We missed a lot of passes; we didn't have a lot of poise with the puck at times but we did enough on Saturday to win."
With the score tied at two at the end of the second, the Icers were in position to take over.
With just more than seven minutes remaining in the game, freshman Mike Diethorn won a crucial faceoff in the Icers' defensive zone. From there, the puck was passed back-and-forth between Sean Kenney and Paul Zodtner, culminating with Zodtner shooting high over the goalie's blocker. The goal gave the giving the Icers a 3-2 lead they would never relinquish, as red-liner McMullen added an empty-netter with 50 seconds to go.
"The second time he made sure," Battista said, referring to McMullen missing his first attempt, but beating the St. Clair defense to his own rebound. "With 50 seconds, there's still enough for them to come back and tie the game -- he made a great second-effort play."
Clutch goals were not the only thing the Icers had going for them during the weekend's second contest, as this time around Penn State was able to tighten up defensively and benefited from Matteo's solid play in net. Specifically, the Icers cut down on breakaways and odd-man rushes given up on Friday, when goalie Paul Mammola saw more than his share of shots in the losing effort.
"Friday night there were a lot [of odd-man rushes] that made it very difficult for our team to gain any momentum," Matteo said. "It definitely made it difficult for us to keep the puck out of the net when there were so many odd-man rushes."
Those chances were just one facet of a frustrating loss on Friday night, as the Icers squandered opportunities. Going 2-10 on the power play was epitomized when the Icers had a power play in the third period and took another costly penalty after the first minute of the advantage. St Clair exploded in that period, putting up four goals, the backbreaking fourth goal coming as a result of the Icers' failure to backcheck, giving up another three-on-two rush.
"In the third period, it was like every mistake we made they capitalized on," Battista said.
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