With the No. 1 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers celebrating their alumni weekend, it makes three straight weeks of ceremony surrounding the team.

To start off the semester, the Icers (21-4-2) honored head coach Joe Battista's 500th win that came during winter break. Last weekend the Icers were the showcase event in a day honoring the Greenberg Ice Pavilion's 25th anniversary.

This weekend, Icers past and present will welcome No. 8 Michigan-Dearborn at 9 tonight and then at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

With a banquet tomorrow and the annual alumni game after that contest, the players will be surrounded by the history of their club. What better way to honor the tradition than with a weekend sweep of a top-10 opponent?

"I hope that, rather than being a distraction, that it will be an inspiration for our young guys," Battista said. "One of the things [the alumni] can do is talk about how tough it is to win a national championship."

As the championships approach, the Icers will face rematches around every turn, facing teams like Michigan-Dearborn, No. 2 Rhode Island and No. 3 Ohio.

In their last meeting with the Wolves (20-9-2), the Icers dominated a 9-0 victory in Dearborn's barn, during the East-West Showcase on Nov. 26.

At the time, Battista called the game the best collective effort of the year against the then-No. 7 Wolves, who admittedly came out on the ice very flat.

"If you had to draw your optimal game, it would have been the game we played against them," junior goalie Chris Matteo said. "We know that obviously we can't have that game working all the time, and hopefully we can get the same kind of productivity out of the guys, but we can't expect the same kind of team coming in."

This time around no one expects the Wolves not to be ready, especially after coming off a strong weekend against Ohio. In the second game of the series, the Wolves earned a tie in the ACHA standings, but went on to defeat the Bobcats in a shootout.

"We can expect a much better hockey team," Matteo said. "It's very obvious that they want to come in here with a purpose, that they want to make a statement about where they belong, where they should be ranked. You can be sure that after the way we beat them the first time, they're going to be coming for blood."

The Wolves have had the game circled on their calendars for a while, Battista said. The question for Battista now is, how can a team on a 15-game winning streak hope to improve to avoid an upset?

"No matter how many games you play, our offense was doing pretty well, obviously, as you know from the scores [last] weekend, but we still want to get better on 'D,' " Matteo said. "We're still trying to tighten that up -- you can never work too much on defense. Hopefully that's what will win us a championship."

With defense a priority, the Icers could use the return of senior defenseman Matt Wallace, who has faced injury problems since last semester. Battista said he is optimistic for Wallace, who has been practicing with the team, to return for the weekend.

Even with the precaution about getting caught off guard by Michigan-Dearborn, the Icers have reason to be confident, as they have been steadily improving during their winning streak.

As senior assistant captain Teague Willits-Kelley said, "We're just going to keep the train rolling on the tracks."