The cheering is often reserved for Penn State following games at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion. On Saturday, however, it was Duquesne making all the noise.

While Saturday's thrilling game -- and controversial finish -- may have put a damper on Alumni Weekend for the No. 2 ACHA Division I Icers, who are 13-2 at home this season, it was a much-needed highlight on an otherwise tumultuous year for the Dukes.

"It's 100 percent our biggest win," said junior forward Mike Heath, who leads the team with 44 points and is eighth in the ACHA with 25 goals. "Somehow, our team decided to pull everything together. We played a little more defensive and when we had our opportunities, we jumped on them."

Despite falling behind 3-0 in the second period, Duquesne took advantage of its chances by netting three power-play goals to even the score and eventually complete the upset in the sixth round of the shootout.

The marquee win was the Dukes' fourth in their first five games of the spring semester. Prior to the holiday break, they managed only two victories in 19 contests.

"In the first semester, anything that can go wrong, did go wrong," head coach Mike Sargo said. "This semester, everybody came back healthy and ... we're really playing well."

Duquesne suffered through numerous on-ice setbacks during the opening portion of its season. Not only was the team forced to play without its top defenseman, but it was also without the services of one of its leading point-scorers. These losses of key players were mostly responsible for the team's dismal start.

Then, the Dukes' season went from bad to worse when its string of misfortune culminated in an off-ice incident that saw three of their members become victims of a hit-and-run outside a Pittsburgh-area bar on Nov. 20.

According to the Duquesne student newspaper, The Duquesne Duke, volunteer assistant coach Tim Fish, sophomore defenseman Mark Heier and Heath "exchanged words" with another group of people while inside the bar. After leaving, one man from the group the Duquesne players and coach had an argument with drove his car toward the three, striking both Heath and Fish, while Heier managed to skirt disaster.

Heath was hit first, knocked to the ground and suffered a neck injury and facial lacerations. Fish was hit second, pinned against a chain link fence and suffered a broken leg.

"It was a really shocking event," said Fish, who has almost completely recovered and was behind the bench for Saturday's win. "But I think through the long run it made us stronger and brought us together."

For Heath, the incident brought everything into perspective for him and his teammates.

"I'm lucky to have my limbs. You can't take advantage of that and I think that's been the main contributor in my and our team's success," he said. "What happened was a messed-up situation, but I was able to bounce back."

And that's exactly what the Dukes have done.

Instead of packing it in, Duquesne rebounded from a rough start, numerous key injuries and a near-tragedy to become a stronger team and record one of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- wins in program history.

"We're getting used to winning again," Heath said. "We're bringing that attitude back to the locker room of 'I don't care what happened, we have a season to win and we have to turn this thing around now.' "