If you asked any member of the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers the last time a Penn State team had lost four games in a row, he would most likely not have been able to tell you.

It was the 1993-94 season. Most were under the age of 10.

But after this weekend's two losses on the road at No. 3 Ohio, the 2005-06 Icers now have the dubious distinction of being the first team to lose four consecutive games in 13 years.

The Icers were defeated 3-2 in overtime Friday and 3-1 Saturday in front of two capacity crowds at Ohio's Bird Arena.

A broken Zamboni that delayed the start of Saturday's game by 40 minutes was not a problem for the Icers (23-8-2), who scored less than two minutes into the game. The same could not be said for Ohio goaltender Ryan Baksh and the Bobcat defense, which left the Icers with nothing to show for its 16 power-play opportunities.

Given Baksh's reputation as one of the ACHA's best goaltenders, the Penn State coaching staff developed a scouting report which they thought would be successful. The only problem was that some players, according to Icers head coach Joe Battista, failed to execute it.

"After the game even the parents, the fans, were all asking me 'Why do our guys always shoot so high?' " Battista said. "We talked about the way to beat Baksh is to deke him and keep the puck low at his feet, screen him. I can't tell you the number of breakaways we had where we shot the puck over the net. Young team, some people are very stubborn."

After the second period of Saturday's game with the Icers down 3-1, Penn State goaltender Paul Mammola, who started both games, stood up in the locker room and questioned why some of his teammates were not following the game plan set up to beat Baksh. The talk seems to have stuck.

"Our shot selection might not have been the greatest," Icers leading scorer Luke DeLorenzo said. "Sometimes myself and some other players just really didn't [follow the plan]. The goals that we did score, we could have scored others like them."

Friday, the Icers managed to score two goals on 18 shots on the All-America goaltender. One was a breakaway by senior assistant captain Teague Willits-Kelley. The second was "one of the prettiest of the season," according to Battista, a tic-tac-toe play ended by DeLorenzo.

But the Icers fell 1:29 into sudden death overtime, when Ohio's Brandon Hanley beat Mammola, who was screened on the play.

Forward Mike McMullen scored 1:33 into Saturday's game on a blast from just inside the blue line, beating Ohio goaltender Ryan Baksh blocker-side high. After the goal, with the Bird Arena crowd silenced, the Icers felt they had the momentum.

However, an Ohio power-play goal midway through the period changed all that, according to Battista, who said that Ryan Tessmer clearly redirected a shot with an illegal high-stick, fueling the sweep by the Bobcats (28-5-1).

"When we watched it on video that confirmed what we thought. The guy had his stick above his head when he scored the goal. It looked like a lacrosse stick," Battista said. "That's the 13th time this year that we've been on the wrong end of one of those decisions for a goal-no goal."

But the coach added that the Icers must get past the tough calls if they plan on winning this year's ACHA title.

"We've got this kind of feeling that the world's against us. We have to get past that. A championship team will make its own breaks," Battista said. "In the end, they won the two games this weekend because they out-worked us."

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Icers now have the mindset that they can play with any ACHA team, but must get better if they are to win at Nationals in March.

"We know that we can play with the best teams in the country, but it's the little things that we're not doing," McMullen said. "It's the little things that are costing us games."