The Penn State ACHA Division I Icers are one of the hottest teams in the country right now. They are in the midst of a 13-game winning streak and have compiled a record of 16-1-0 in ACHA play this year, earning them the No. 3 spot in the national rankings.

A run this impressive might have some wondering when, or maybe if, Penn State is ever going to lose again.

Just don't tell that to head coach Scott Balboni. He's in no hurry to anoint his team the next ACHA National Champion. In fact, despite the winning streak, Balboni is more likely to point out the Icers' flaws after games.

To put things in perspective, this is a guy who finally admitted his power play unit fared "pretty well," only after the Icers scored seven goals with a man advantage against Delaware.

"At this point in the year, I'm certainly happy with our record, but we're not playing to our best ability. It's a good sign that we're still winning games, but I think we have a lot of room to get better as a team," Balboni said.

By the coach's count, the Icers have played four games -- that's right, only four of 18 -- at a very high level. Coincidentally, they all happen to have been against Ohio and Rhode Island, the only top-10 teams that Penn State beat (they lost against No. 2 Oklahoma).

Whether the Icers are playing down to their opponents at times is debatable. One thing Balboni seems sure about, though, is the fact that the team needs to get better, or it won't be flying an eighth ACHA championship banner over the rink at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

"I'm looking at the big picture and I'm looking at what we need to do to win a National Championship at the end of the year," Balboni said. "I see mistakes that we're making that if we make them at the end of the year going to the national championship, we're not going to win."

While it may seem that Balboni is being picky, the team has consistently agreed with his assessments.

"He doesn't want us to be satisfied with where we're at right now," forward Brandon Rubeo said. "We're pretty well put together and we play well as a team right now for being in December, but at the same time how we're playing now won't be good enough come March."

Penn State will be playing the rest of the season with a target on its back, and the players are determined not to get knocked off their game. Though the national championship won't be determined until March, the Icers realize that they have to put in the work now to reap the benefits later.

In the second half of the season, the Icers will have to play a lot of teams with revenge on their minds. With the exception of contests against Pittsburgh, Oakland and Maryland, every game from January to March will be against a team Penn State has already defeated.

Some of the biggest matchups include a two-game set at Ohio and a home series against Rhode Island.

"I absolutely think that we have to keep improving, because those other teams we're playing -- we're beating them, yeah -- but they're just going to keep getting better throughout the season" defenseman Kyle Mills said.