Earlier this week, Icers head coach Joe Battista sought to dispel any thoughts his players may have had about taking this weekend's unranked opponent lightly.

"I e-mailed the guys the article from the West Virginia newspaper when West Virginia beat [Ohio]," Battista said, referencing the unranked Mountaineers 2-1 win against No. 2 Ohio on Nov. 19.

Fresh off two victories against previously top-ranked Illinois, Battista wanted to make sure that the No. 4 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers, who are riding a 13-game winning streak, do not suffer the same fate against Towson this weekend that Ohio did against West Virginia.

The home-and-home series begins at 8:30 tonight when the Icers (19-4-2) face the Tigers (9-15-1) on the road and continues at 7:30 tomorrow night at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

With rematches against Ohio, Rhode Island and Michigan-Dearborn on the schedule the next three weekends, Towson is the last unranked team that the Icers will play before the ACHA National Tournament in March.

But freshman Frank Berry, the Icers' third-leading scorer, says the team is not looking ahead to any game besides the two this weekend.

"Our game plan is to just play it game to game like we're playing Illinois again or any ranked team.

We're not taking anyone lightly," Berry said.

After the wins against the Illini, several players thought there was cause for a day off this week, but senior captain Brett Wilson thought it was important that the team kept the same practice schedule that has resulted in a baker's dozen of consecutive wins so far.

"A lot of the guys after the big weekend wanted Monday off, but we decided to stay with it and keep working on schedule so we don't fall into that trap of just going through the motions. We have to keep getting better," Wilson said.

Getting better, specifically on defense, is something that the Icers must do if this year's team is to win the ACHA, Battista said. The Icers have given up at least three goals in each of their last five games, one streak that Battista would like to see end.

"We've spent the whole week working on defense. Everything we've been doing has been working on defense," Battista said.

We were actually playing six-on-six in the zone so the guys had to lock up on the men. They had to talk to one another. [Tuesday], we had a lot of combat drills."

"We're just trying to keep the streak going," Berry said. "We're just trying to keep getting better until we get to Nationals."