It's a story, some would say, made for a movie. A player, an integral part of the team, leaves the squad in the prime of his career only to return two years later, not quite in his old form, with unfamiliar faces surrounding him in the locker room.

When senior forward Justin DePreits returned to the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers this season after taking a year off from hockey that was exactly the situation he found himself in.

DePretis, one of the key players on the 2003-04 Icers team that made it to the ACHA National Championship game, left the team following that season in hopes of playing for Division I Robert Morris, which is located nearby his hometown of Finleyville.

He enrolled at Robert Morris last year and was set to play for the Colonials until the NCAA determined that he did not have enough transfer credits and therefore was not eligible to play. As a result, DePretis was forced to take a year off from hockey.

This past spring, with one more year of eligibility, DePretis asked Icers head coach Joe Battista if he could return to play for Penn State.

Battista reluctantly welcomed DePretis back, but put him on the gold line, the name traditionally given the Icers' second best offensive trio.

Upon his return, DePretis, who is listed at 6-foot-1, 220-pounds, immediately became the Icers leader in several career offensive categories. With 13 freshmen on this year's roster, DePretis' 61 career goals, 46 assists, 106 points and eight game-winning goals are tops of any Icers player currently on the roster.

After taking a year off, the goals and assists did not come easy this season. DePretis' first goal of the year came during a 6-3 loss to St. Clair on Oct. 14. His second came exactly three weeks later during a 4-4 tie against then-No. 17 Duquesne.

"I was struggling at the beginning of the year. I wasn't really putting the puck in the net too much," DePretis said.

But this past weekend in two high-intensity games against No. 2 Ohio University, DePretis quietly had two of his most impressive performances of the season.

Friday night, with the game scoreless in the third period, DePretis scored an apparent power-play goal to put the No. 4 Icers up 1-0. The shot originated from DePretis' stick just above the face-off circle to the left of Ohio goalie Ryan Baksh and beat the All-American goalie blocker-side high, but the goal was waved off because the net was off its moorings, according to the referees.

The Icers would end up losing the game 1-0 on a goal scored by the Bobcats' Clay LaBrosse with 3:33 remaining in regulation.

During Saturday's 5-4 win, DePretis was overshadowed by another multiple-goal performance from freshman Luke DeLorenzo, but he was on the ice for the Icers first three goals, including the first, which he scored himself.

With Penn State and Ohio at even-strength in the first period, DePretis picked up a loose puck at the Icers' blue line. He carried the puck down the right side of the ice into the Bobcats defensive zone, skated around a defender, crossed in front Baksh and beat him with a backhand shot.

Saturday, DePretis saw his majority of ice time as a part of the Icers' revamped power play unit that featured four or five forwards at a time. He was matched up with the Icers' top line of DeLorenzo, freshman Frank Berry and junior Michael McMullen. And it paid off, with two goals coming from the unit.

"DePretis is a great player. His skills are unbelievable. His shot is amazing, so I think that's why they put him in that spot [on the power play], let me get the puck to him and let him take shots all day," DeLorenzo said. "Friday, he scored that goal, even though it wasn't counted. That's the kind of shot that he can make."

After Saturday's game, DePretis said he starting to feel like the player that he was two seasons ago.

"It's coming back," DePretis said. "It feels good."

While being the Icers' leader in several career offensive categories, DePretis also leads the team in career penalty minutes, something that has ruffled Battista's feathers more than once. But this season, Battista says, DePretis has been a better teammate than in the past. And now he is slowly starting to regain the form on the ice he has sported two seasons ago.

"He's getting himself back into hockey shape. It's taken him a while to get his timing back. Earlier in the season, there were times when he was shooting when he should have passed, and passing when he should have shot," Battista said. "He's starting to feel more and more comfortable out there."