Following his team's first road loss in nearly three months on Wednesday against West Chester, Penn State ACHA Division I Icers head coach Scott Balboni said his team needed an "attitude adjustment."
It's safe to say that the No. 2 Icers (19-4-0, 17-2-0 ACHA) got the message from their first-year coach and responded with their first victory of the new year with a 3-1 decision against the Scranton Ice Royals (6-17-0) tonight at the Ice Box.
"We had a great team effort today, which is what we needed," Balboni said. "On Thursday, we basically had a practice with no pucks and no nets … we adjusted our attitude, and we came out today very businesslike and worked awful hard."
Despite the win, goals were difficult to come by for Penn State, which was due, in large part, to the solid performance from Scranton senior goaltender David Skinner, who made 49 saves in the loss. However, the Icers' inability to score was also because of the absence of three of their top four scorers.
Forwards Luke DeLorenzo, Frank Berry and Mike McMullen — who make up Penn State's highly productive Red line — were not in the starting lineup as they prepared for the World University Games next week in Italy. The trio will be joined by junior defenseman Keith Jordan, who also did not play.
With a large portion of its offense missing, Penn State knew that its scoring would need to come from some unlikely sources, like freshman defenseman John Conte and sophomore defenseman Kyle Mills.
"[Conte and Mills] both had great games," Balboni said. "A lot of guys knew that they needed to step up in the game, especially with four of our top players away, and they did that."
Conte's unassisted goal in the first period was just his second of the season and got the Icers off to the good start they desperately needed. They added to that lead in the second when junior forward Matt Schwartz took a pass from junior forward Sean Kenney, who was named an assistant captain on Thursday, and tallied a power play goal.
When Scranton narrowed the margin to one midway through the third, Mills nullified the Scranton's comeback bid when he netted his second goal of the season with less than eight minutes into the game.
In net, senior goaltender Chris Matteo played well in his second consecutive start and needed only 18 saves to earn his fourth win of the year.
"Chris came back from the break and played very good in practice the first two weeks, so we decided to give him a go and he has been playing well ever since," Balboni said.
Penn State will have little rest before it completes its current three-game road trip at 5 p.m. tomorrow against rival No. 12 Delaware. A six-game homestand awaits the Icers, begining next weekend with two games against Pitt.
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