When a team goes on a two-month winning streak like the ACHA Div. II Penn State Ice Lions, the only thing harder than accepting the loss is trying to move on.

That is what faces the Ice Lions as they try to bounce back from last week's loss with a road game tonight at Marist and a home game at 10:15 tomorrow night versus Montclair State.

And while one loss -- its first since November -- is no cause for concern for Penn State, head coach Pat Fung says that it is in the best interest of the team to move forward and put last weekend behind them.

"The best thing after a loss is to play another game," he said. "Winning makes losing feel better."

Friday's game with Marist will be the first meeting of the year between the two, but Saturday night's affair will be the Ice Lions' second showdown with Montclair State. The two teams battled to a 3-3 tie back on Nov. 10, right before the Stony Brook game that freshman Brendan Conlon said turned the season around.

"That was the game we learned what we had to do to win," Conlon said. "We now know what kind of team we are."

It's a team that Fung continues to emphasize must be physical and not be afraid to "pay the price," to win hockey games.

"When we want to be a tough, physical team, we can be a very good team," Fung said.

That's why during practice this week, the team spent a lot of time on individual drills and winning one-on-one battles, a weak point against Stony Brook.

"No one wants to lose," Conlon said. "It makes you want to work twice as hard."

And Fung believes that if this team continues to work hard, and is willing to "pay the price" then the final two months of the season could be quite memorable for his players.

"As long as they realize what they need to fix and then correct it, then they will be fine," Fung said, "Everything leads up to the end result."

Rescheduled

The Ice Lions will face one of their biggest rivals four months after the game was initially scheduled.

The contest with NYU, which was originally scheduled in October, will be made up Feb. 9 in Altoona. That was chosen as because it was the SECHL's designated make-up game date.

"We set a date aside every year, that if a game needs to be cancelled, it can be played on that date," Fung said. "We were lucky that both teams were free and available to play that night."

The game was originally scheduled for Oct. 20, but was cancelled when NYU could not make it to Penn State in time due to traffic.