Ohio University strolled into Happy Valley on Friday as the hottest team in the country thanks to its opportunistic power play. It left Saturday night with a bruised ego and two blemishes on its record, thanks to the suffocating penalty kill of the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers.

"That's all about effort. The guys that kill penalties for us put in a great effort this weekend," Penn State coach Scott Balboni said. "We had some adjustments to their power play, and I was very happy with the way we killed penalties, but it all came down to effort, and those guys put in a little extra."

The adjustments made by the Icers' coaching staff stifled one of the most explosive power plays in the ACHA.

Through their first 11 games of the season, the No. 4 Bobcats had tallied 46 power-play goals -- accounting for 56 percent of the team's offensive production. During Penn State's two-game sweep this weekend, the Icers allowed the Ohio attack to convert only 5 percent of its opportunities with the man advantage -- an abysmal 1-for-19 showing.

"It was big for us because Ohio's power play has been known to be very, very good. So, we watched film over and over again and practiced the penalty kill a lot," sophomore goaltender Nick Signet said.

"With them only scoring one goal all weekend, which is fine with me, I think we did our job well. We stopped them and other teams in the past have had real trouble stopping them," he said.

Throughout Friday night's game, the No. 3 Icers stymied the Bobcats on all nine of their power play opportunities, the most pivotal kill coming midway through the third period.

In a 71-second span, Penn State committed three penalties to put itself at a 5-on-3 disadvantage for nearly three minutes. Ohio managed to rifle several shots at Signet, who promptly turned them away. Many shots were blocked by the Icers that helped preserve the scoreless tie at that point.

"I made some saves, yeah, but they made some clears that needed to be made. And at the end, I saw numerous guys diving to block shots," Signet said. "It was awesome and I couldn't have asked for anything more."

As Penn State returned to full strength, the visibly frustrated Bobcats took two penalties of their own that opened the door for senior forward Mike McMullen's heroics as he netted the eventual game-winner.

In Saturday's rematch, Ohio came out motivated and registered its only power-play score on a textbook deflection in the game's opening minutes. But, just like the night before, the Icers swarmed the Bobcats every time they were on the offensive and prevented them from adding to their lead.

Sophomore forward Brandon Rubeo, one of the penalty-kill stars, provided the equalizer in the early moments of the second period, which sparked the Icers to their fourth consecutive win -- and third over a ranked opponent.

"Obviously, we kept to our responsibilities on the ice and we did a good job of not getting confused or running around [on the penalty kill]," Rubeo said, "and that's where our success came from."