The No. 7 Penn State Lady Icers (10-6, 5-3 ECWHL) pushed their league record above .500 with a dominating two-game sweep against league rival Bates College.

Alicia Lepore, Ceili Stahl and Chelsea Sacks each turned in multi-goal performances yesterday.

The Lady Icers defeated Bates, 10-3, yesterday, and Saturday night brought a similar result, as Penn State recorded a shutout, 9-0.

Yesterday's game took on a decidedly physical tone, as both teams were heavily penalized throughout. Lady Icers' captain Dana Voelker suffered a concussion and forward and second-leading scorer Jess Waldron was eventually ejected during the second period.

After Saturday's lopsided result, it did not surprise Lady Icers coach Michael Brinton that Bates played a physical second game.

"They knew one of the only ways they were going to be able to beat us was if they played physical and slowed us down with their bulk because they didn't have the speed to stay with us," he said.

After Waldron's ejection, Bates momentarily gained the momentum by scoring with 10:34 left in the second period to cut the Lady Icers' lead to three. However, Sacks, Penn State's assistant captain, answered by scoring less than a minute later. Leading scorer Lepore added another goal less than a minute after that to kill Bates' momentum.

"That was a big goal by Chelsea," Brinton said. "I don't think we ever lost control of the game, but the momentum was not on our side and Chelsea just took it right upon herself and went right down the ice and buried it."

This weekend's series was another strong offensive performance for the Lady Icers, but Brinton said it was also important that the team showed it could play a physical game and still come out on top.

Next weekend the team will face Slippery Rock and Indiana University of Pennsylvania in their final action before winter break. Those teams will be hardpressed to end the Lady Icers five-game winning streak. Penn State is ranked first in the ACHA Southeast region, while IUP and Slippery Rock are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively. Penn State has yet to play Slippery Rock this season, but it beat IUP 16-0 in the first meeting between the two teams this season.

On Oct. 22, the Lady Icers dropped an 8-1 decision to No. 2 Rhode Island, which brought their record at that time to 2-5. Since then, the Lady Icers have won eight of their last nine games and appear ready to make a postseason run.

"We're jelling right now," Brinton said. "The team sees that we're rolling. We've got something going here."