The largest home crowd of the season, adorned in white T-shirts and equipped with thundersticks, was looking to the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers for a reason to erupt.

And thanks to forward Nate Obringer, it got the opportunity.

With Saturday's game on the line and the puck on his stick, Obringer -- the team's second-leading goal scorer -- slipped a wrist shot past Rhode Island goaltender Anthony Feyock and inside the left post to send both the crowd and his teammates into a tizzy.

Obringer's goal gave the No. 2 Icers (25-5-0, 23-3-0) a thrilling, 3-2 shootout victory against the No. 4 Golden Rams (22-7-1, 15-3-0), and completed the sweep of the season series. The four wins came a year after going winless in five meetings with Rhode Island, including the ACHA National Championship game, which the Rams won, 3-1.

The win, which came on the heels of Friday night's 6-1 rout, was also Penn State's first in three shootouts this semester.

"It feels great to beat them," said forward Luke DeLorenzo, who, along with forwards Mike McMullen, Frank Berry and defenseman Keith Jordan, played in his first weekend back from the World University Games.

"Whenever you play a top-four team in this league, it's always good to win, not so much for the bragging rights, but it sets us up going into nationals," he said.

This weekend's back-to-back wins improved the Icers' record to 6-0 against teams currently ranked in the top four of the ACHA. Although, after Friday night's game, the Rams didn't look like they were worthy of such a high ranking.

That was because Penn State continued its trend of playing lights-out on Friday nights.

Less than 11 minutes into the first period, defenseman Scott Dakan and forward Jaime Zimmel had already beaten one of the league's premiere goaltenders for a power play and short-handed goal, respectively.

By the time forward Paul Zodtner capped the Icers' scoring with 14 minutes remaining in the third, Feyock had already been chased in favor of his sophomore backup.

Penn State's thorough domination and five-goal margin of victory was unexpected in a game billed as a slugfest between two heavyweights, but was it surprising?

"Not at all," Zimmel said Friday night. "With Rhode Island, we know what we're in for. They are one of the top teams in the league and we know that if we don't come with our 'A' game every night, it's going to be tough."

As Saturday's first period rolled around, the roles between the two teams had reversed. Rhode Island, playing like a squad out for redemption, was now the aggressor while Penn State was flat and passive.

The Icers' uninspired start lead to 2-0 deficit at intermission and prompted head coach Scott Balboni to call his team out after getting "totally dominated for 20 minutes."

"What I can tell you what I said is that we weren't playing very hard and I kind of called on their manhood a little bit, saying they had to step it up and show a little heart," Balboni said. "We didn't change our systems; we didn't need to change anything. We just needed to change our attitude and get our effort and heart back into the game, and that's what we did."

With a 34-11 edge in shots over the final two periods, the Icers eventually solved a much-improved Feyock and used two goals from DeLorenzo to even the score.

Following a scoreless overtime, the game went to a five-man shootout that Penn State only needed four attempts to win. As goaltender Chris Matteo continued his phenomenal play by stopping each of the Rams' three tries, forwards McMullen and Berry converted on their opportunities and set the stage for Obringer's heroics.

"We pretty much expected [the sweep]," Zodtner said. "We weren't cocky about it, but after what we did in their rink, we knew what we were capable of doing."

Slapshots

Jordan recorded the 100th point of his career by assisting on DeLorenzo's first goal in Saturday's win ... Matteo's two wins moved him out of a tie with John Davis and into sole possession of fourth-place on the Icers' list for all-time victories by a goaltender with 44.