The No. 2 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers (22-4-0, 20-2-0 ACHA) returned to the Greenberg Ice Pavilion this weekend to their largest home crowd of the season against the much-maligned Pittsburgh Panthers.

For the Panthers (5-13-1), these were arguably their biggest games of the year.

But when given the chance to knock off perennial ACHA powerhouse Penn State in its own building, Pittsburgh fell flat while the Icers rose to the occasion to notch two wins, 7-0 and 2-1 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

On Friday night, the Icers dominated play from the opening face-off. It took more than nine minutes for them to score their first goal, but when Icers' defenseman Chris Lepore beat Panthers goalie Ed Nusser with a slapshot from the point, it opened the floodgates. Steve Peck and Paul Zodtner added goals in the first period, in which the Icers outshot the Panthers 24-0.

Pitt did not register its first shot until nearly halfway through the second period.

The crowd erupted in a sarcastic cheer for the visitors, prompting goalie Chris Matteo to acknowledge the crowd with a wave.

"Being a senior, I don't have many games left, and the fans have been real good to me," Matteo said. "I just kind of did the first thing that came to my head. All our guys thought it was pretty funny."

Pittsburgh didn't have much fun the rest of the night, as Penn State got goals from Jaime Zimmel, Andrew Magulick and Matt Schwartz (who scored twice).

"We all knew what we had to do," Peck said. "It was Pitt, and nobody here likes Pitt, so we came out hard and it carried through to the third period."

The Panthers came into Saturday's game with more fire, jumping ahead of the Icers when forward Mark Barakat beat Penn State goalie Nick Signet 9:24 into the first period.

With 2:28 remaining in the first, Bryan Sobonya, playing in his second game as an Icer, tied things up at one, but Icers head coach Scott Balboni was not satisfied going into the first intermission without a lead.

"Internally, they definitely thought this was going to be an easier night than it was, and they came out flat," Balboni said. "Between the first and second periods all I said was, 'Captains, do your job, because I'm going to lose it in there.' "

Penn State struggled to get the puck by Nusser the whole game, as he turned away 50 shots.

With 6:28 remaining in the second period, though, Zimmel gave Penn State the lead with a breakaway on the power play.

It would prove to be all the Icers needed as they went on to the 2-1 victory.

Penn State credited the Panthers with playing much better on Saturday and praised the solid play of Nusser, who had to stand on his head most of the day to keep Pittsburgh in the game. He faced 121 shots in two games while his team only had 28. But ultimately, Penn State was the superior team in every aspect.

"Pitt's probably not going to make the National Tournament this year, so they were playing this game like it was their National Tournament," Balboni said.

"With Pitt and Penn State, it doesn't matter what sport it's in, it's always a rivalry."

This weekend, Penn State will face Duquesne during its annual alumni weekend.