After the emotional letdown that followed the cancellation of their game last Friday against NYU, the Penn State Ice Lions will try not to let the two weeks between games hurt their play on the road.

It would be a safe assumption, however, that the fate that awaited NYU will probably not be awaiting the Ice Lions (2-1, 1-0 SECHL) when they play a two game weekend series against the Holy Cross Crusaders tonight at 7 and tomorrow afternoon at 4:30.

Holy Cross (2-1, 1-0 SECHL), playing in its first season in the SECHL, has shown an early penchant for offense, scoring 15 goals in the first three games of the season so far this year.

It has also shown a tendency for giving them up too, allowing 12 goals in the same span.

"They're going to be a good team," Penn State head coach Pat Fung said. "They're going to be very talented. But we don't want to change the way that we play. We want to keep playing our style of hockey: Playing strong defense and keeping the puck deep in their zone."

These two games start a tough stretch for the Ice Lions.

This weekend's games start a string of five consecutive games on the road for the Ice Lions, including a trip to Manhattan to play aforementioned NYU. They won't play another home game until Nov. 3, when SUNY Stony Brook travels to State College.

"It's very important to get off to a good start," Fung said about the stretch of road games, "because we're in the end of October and we've usually played about eight or nine games at this point, and we've only played three, so we're behind the curve."

Even though they haven't played a competitive game in two weeks, the Ice Lions don't seem to be worried about the extended time off affecting their play. Senior defenseman Tony Russo seems to be more concerned about the trek to Worcester, Mass.

"The first period is going to be really important," Russo said. "Because it's a six-hour bus ride to Holy Cross. So our priority is getting our legs going."

A good sign for the Ice Lions is that they are healthy going into this five game stretch.

They will have their full complement of players except for Brandon Fay, who was called up to the Division I Icers because of injuries.

Another encouraging sign is the way practices have been going this week.

Fung said that this week they've been working on the power play, especially moving the puck effectively and taking shots when the chance arrives. Also, they've focused on not trying to make the extra pass when it is unnecessary.

The coaches have also been stressing a sense of urgency into the players to attempt to raise the level of play.

"Every game is important," Rossi said.

"Holy Cross is a really good team, and we already have one loss. So the coaches have been telling us all week that we have to pick it up."

What may be the key for this weekend, however, is not what the Ice Lions have done to prepare, but what the Ice Lions don't know.

This is the first ever meeting between the two teams, and Fung admitted that it is hard to gameplan for a team that they have not seen before.

Statistically, Holy Cross is led by forwards Kevin Connolly (3 G, 4 A) and Justin Martin (3 G, 2 A).

But Fung doesn't believe that the Crusaders have any individual players that will cause the team to change its gameplan coming into this weekend.

"They've got some good players. They're in the same boat we are. Early in the season, anyone can have a good game," Fung said.

What they do know is that after two weeks, they want to play competitively again.

They've been ready since last week.

Whether or not that equates to results won't be known until Saturday night.