If this is "winning ugly," the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers will take it -- for now.

The No. 1-ranked team in the ACHA extended its winning streak to 17 games by sweeping No. 8 Michigan-Dearborn 10-5 on Friday night and 5-3 Saturday afternoon at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

Ten and five-goal performances may not conjure up ugly images for most, but Icers head coach Joe Battista is still waiting for his team to have equally impressive outings on defense, which he believes will be necessary if this year's team is to capture the ACHA National Championship.

"This is a tough time of the year," Battista said. "It's kind of that tweener time when you're not quite at Nationals but you've been at it for a while. This is a grind-it-out time, but it's better to win ugly than lose ugly."

In both games this weekend, the Icers (23-4-2) trailed at the end of the first period, but responded with offensive outbursts in the second and third periods. In those periods, the Wolves (20-11-2) turned to the unsuccessful "bully" approach that they tried when the teams first met the day after Thanksgiving, a 9-0 Icers victory.

"We knew they were going to be pretty aggressive. We knew it was going to get chippy like it did a couple times, but we had to show that we're not going to back down," Icers leading scorer Luke DeLorenzo said. "We can muck it up a little bit too if we need to do. We just wanted to show that we weren't going to let them bully us."

Friday night, the Wolves led 2-1 after one period, going 2-for-2 on power play opportunities. In the second period the Icers regrouped and scored five goals, the third of which set off a brief scuffle and a string of three Penn State scores in five minutes.

After senior assistant captain Luc Walker took a hard drive to the net and put the puck past Michigan-Dearborn goalie Stephen Yu, Walker ended up pushing Yu over, sending the Wolves the message that the Icers were not up for playing the grabby type of game their opponent was starting to impose.

"They did that too Thanksgiving. They got a little chippy when we got up by a couple of goals. So we knew it was coming," Walker said.

The next Icers goal came in breakaway form less than two minutes later. DeLorenzo put a double-clutch wrist shot past Yu, exciting the crowd and DeLorenzo, who fell in celebration.

"[Detroit Red Wings center] Pavel Datsyuk. I saw him do that move one time so I've been kind of working on it for the past couple years," DeLorenzo said. "I don't know why I thought of it, but as soon as I got the puck on the breakaway I just said I was gonna try it."

Sophomore forward Dave Arcobello added his fourth goal of the season 56 seconds later to end the three-goal spurt. Eight different Penn State players ended up scoring goals Friday.

The Icers gave up a goal 21 seconds into the third but again went on a scoring streak, this time tallying four in five minutes, putting the game out of reach at 9-3. The Wolves didn't stop playing, though, and scored two goals in two minutes midway through the period, ruffling Battista's feathers.

Saturday, the Icers ended the first period down 1-0, but again responded in the second and third periods. Freshman defenseman Kyle Mills scored his first goal of the season to tie the game at one with 13:49 remaining in the period. Sophomore forward Nate Obringer scored a powerplay goal off a DeLorenzo rebound to put Penn State up 2-1 heading into the third.

DeLorenzo would score two power play goals in the final period, both off rebounds from defenseman Keith Jordan to put Penn State ahead 4-2. The Icers again gave up two goals in the third, drawing the ire of Battista, who has repeatedly said he fears running into hot goaltender in upcoming games and the postseason.

"I'm absolutely worried in a sense," Battista said. "But the one thing that's good is that we know how to win these games when we're not playing our best."