The No. 7 Penn State Lady Icers (12-6, 5-3 ECWHL) ended the semester with two easy victories, beating Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Slippery Rock University by scores of 14-0 and 13-0, respectively.

IUP and Slippery Rock, two teams in their first year of ACHA competition, were clearly overmatched against the Lady Icers. Though the team has had more lopsided victories than its 14-0 win over IUP on Friday night, they outshot IUP by an astonishing margin of 101-1.

Every Lady Icer recorded a point on Friday, and leading scorer Alicia Lepore recorded hat tricks in each game, giving her 43 goals on the season.

Lady Icers head coach Michael Brinton said he still tries to use games against lesser opponents to improve the team, especially in terms of passing the puck.

The wins brought Penn State's winning streak to seven games, and added to the its momentum heading into the semester break. Brinton feels the team has improved greatly, especially in terms of team chemistry, over the course of the winning streak.

"We're playing a lot better than we did at the beginning of the season," he said. "Our top line with Alicia [Lepore] and Jess [Waldron] is clicking a lot. They're getting a lot of points, they're finding each other. They're starting to know where each other are before looking. That's something that we didn't have at the beginning of the year."

Brinton said that next semester's games at No. 13 Norwich Feb. 3-4, and No. 6 Connecticut Jan. 27 and Feb. 10 will be important in determining the team's postseason hopes.

After losing games earlier in the season to No. 4 Western Michigan, No. 5 Michigan St. and No. 9 Ohio St., Brinton now feels confident that the Lady Icers will be able to challenge teams of that caliber down the road.

"I'd take those same teams; Michigan St., Ohio St. and Western Michigan. We might not beat them, but I guarantee it would be a totally different game," he said. "I think this semester, beating teams like UMass and Bates, we showed that we are ready to be national contenders again."