Walk into the Penn State Hockey offices in East Area locker room, and you will see the history on the wall.

Team pictures of Penn State ACHA Division I Icers teams of the past, several of which were taken in the immediate moments following an ACHA Championship game victory.

The most recent of those is of the 2002-03 squad, the last Penn State team to win a title. That team capped off a stretch of four championships in four years.

Since that photo was taken, the Icers have been back to the title game twice -- not a surprise considering they've been to eight consecutive championship games. But the Icers have lost those two most recent contests, last season against Illinois and against Ohio in 2004.

For a program that has won five of the last eight American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) titles, two years without a crown is considered a drought.

This weekend's 16-team ACHA National Tournament in West Chester provides the No. 3 Icers the opportunity to end their two-year dry spell, beginning with a first-round matchup against No. 14 Delaware at 1 p.m today.

The winner of today's game will play the winner of No. 6 Weber State and No. 11 Duquesne in the second round at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Semifinals are held Saturday and the tournament concludes Sunday. The Icers come in ranked third, behind No. 1 Rhode Island and No. 2 Ohio. Defending champion Illinois is ranked fourth.

"To say we're the best team would be a stretch," senior assistant captain Brendan Martin said. "We're not the best team, but we're definitely capable of beating every team there."

Martin is one of seven players remaining from that 2002-03 championship team picture. Aside from goaltender Paul Mammola, who transferred to Penn State from UMass-Lowell before last season, the rest of this season's roster is made up of freshmen and sophomores.

The team left for West Chester yesterday, planning to skate at the host facility to give themselves a chance "to see the arena, hear it a little bit, see what kind of noise it's going to make," senior assistant captain Teague Willits-Kelley said.

Icers head coach Joe Battista hopes the early arrival will help the Icers (24-9-2), especially the 13 freshman players, get familiar with their surroundings. But no matter how comfortable they get, nothing can take the place of playing in front of the crowd at the year-ending tournament, one senior said.

"They'll recognize pretty early the difference in atmosphere at Nationals compared to regular games," Martin said. "We tell them what it's like, but I've been a freshman, you don't know what it's like until you step on the ice."

After beginning the season with a 6-4-2 record, the Icers won 17 consecutive games during the course of three months, before dropping five of their final six. Four of those losses came at the hands of Rhode Island and Ohio, two in overtime.

"I choose to look at that we came that close four times to beating the two teams that are ranked ahead of us," Battista said. "All it's going to take is a big save here, a good defensive play there and a power play goal here, and those games could have been different."

The players remain anxious to face the elite ACHA teams again "when it counts," Willits-Kelley said, but they are not looking past their first- and second-round opponents.

"Just like everyone says, 'Any team can beat any team on any given day.' That's what my prep school coach always used to say," senior assistant captain Luc "Wolfpack" Walker said. "So let's just be the better team today."

Today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday are all that remain in this year's season, which the Icers hope to end with four victories and a team picture with the Murdoch Cup.

"It's Nationals time," freshman Luke DeLorenzo said. "We realize that it's either do it now or we're going to have five-and-a-half months to think about it, and we don't want to do that."