Penn State Icers goaltender Chris Matteo skated calmly to the net on Saturday, seemingly oblivious to the palpable tension in the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

As the crowd roared for Matteo, he settled into his crease and stared forward, finding only one other player on the ice. At the other end of the rink stood a familiar foe, Rhode Island goalie and fellow senior Anthony Feyock, who is considered to be one of the ACHA's best at his position.

After 65 minutes of play, the Icers and the Rams were about to decide their final contest of the regular season by a shootout. And put into one of the most pressure-filled situations a goalie can face, Matteo turned away everything Rhode Island brought.

"None of us thought we were going to lose this game," he said afterward. "We had to weather the storm in the beginning and then just feed off the crowd. Nobody left, they all stuck with us and knew we were going to come back and we did."

Matteo denied all three Rams he faced in the shootout, and after every save the crowd erupted louder than they had all season. When Icers forward Nate Obringer buried the game-winning goal, Matteo was mobbed by his teammates.

"He's just playing inspired hockey right now," Icers forward Paul Zodtner said of his goalie. "He's playing tough, he's playing hard, and his head's in every play."

All weekend long, Matteo stole the show, allowing only three goals on 60 shots and standing on his head to make spectacular saves that brought the fans to their feet. The wins marked the first times in Matteo's career that he defeated Feyock and Rhode Island and also moved him into fourth place on Penn State's career wins list.

"There's certainly an upper echelon of goalies in the league, and it's always fun when you're dueling it out because it's dubbed a goalie battle," Matteo said.

"But I just try to worry about the stuff I'm doing, seeing the puck and stopping the puck. If I play up to the best of my abilities, the result will take care of itself."

If this weekend's games were a heavyweight battle of ACHA goalies, Matteo won the first round by a knockout. He saved 36 shots on Friday night and preserved a shutout until 22 seconds were left in the game.

Feyock, on the other hand, was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals. Rhode Island head coach Joe Augustine did not hide his disappointment in his goalie, who was representing Team USA in the World University Games as recently as two weeks ago.

"[His performance] was horrendous," Augustine said Saturday about the previous night. "He didn't play well at all. I don't know if it had to do with [going to] Italy or not, but he was terrible. He looked like he shouldn't even be on our team, let alone be one of the top goalies."

On Saturday, it was the Rams who drew first, taking a 2-0 lead in the first period. And when it looked like Rhode Island was going to put them away, Matteo carried the team on his back, fending off the Rams' best opportunities.

"In that first period, we could have been down 4-0 or 5-0 in the blink of an eye," Penn State head coach Scott Balboni said. "They had a lot of opportunities, but [Matteo] held us in there."

Outside the locker room after the game, a group of young kids swarmed around Matteo, hoping to get autographs. He happily obliged. This much was clear in the eyes of Penn State hockey fans: Matteo owned the day.