The season is young, but the No. 2 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers have already shown a knack for performing well in the clutch.

Two timely goals in the third period of Friday night's game with Scranton allowed the Icers to win their home opener against the Royals, 4-2. In yesterday's contest with Navy, they needed another clutch performance in the final period to secure a 6-3 victory against the Midshipmen.

However, when considering how well the Icers (3-1, 3-0 ACHA) opened their game with Navy, it is surprising that the outcome wasn't decided much earlier.

After building a 3-0 advantage by the first intermission, Penn State suddenly lost its intensity -- and its lead -- in the second period.

"We're a young team and we're still learning, but we took a team for granted," head coach Scott Balboni said. "Navy is a good, hard-working team. They came back and crawled in on us. We outshot them 22-3 in the first period and I think our youngness showed when we thought we were going to do the same thing in the second."

Thanks to eight Penn State penalties, Navy enjoyed a 9-4 edge in shots in the second period.

Navy junior forward Patrick Sullivan also capitalized on his team's numerous man-advantages with three goals, including two on the power play, in a span of 13 minutes.

As the third period arrived, the Icers were on their heels and reeling while Navy had seized the momentum.

"We went into the locker room and said that we just let the team back into the game because we quit working as hard, we quit skating as hard as we did the first period and they didn't," Balboni said.

"I told them that we can't take teams for granted and just because we outshot them in the first doesn't mean we are going to do it every period."

Penn State rallied around its coach's words and was a new team in the third period.

Putting their shaky second-period performance behind them, the Icers regained the lead when junior defenseman Keith Jordan blasted a one-timer past the Navy goaltender for a power-play goal.

Sophomore defenseman Scott Dakan and forward Luke DeLorenzo added goals in the waning minutes to seal the win.