It didn't matter to Luke DeLorenzo that the newly crowned No. 1 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers were resting most of their starters. The sophomore forward still expected to win.

Less than a week after grabbing the top spot in the final coaches' poll of the regular season and the No. 1 seed at the upcoming ACHA National Tournament, Penn State was brought back to Earth yesterday afternoon with a resounding 4-1 loss on the road against No. 10 Oakland.

"Obviously you have to be disappointed with not winning, no matter where you play or who plays," DeLorenzo said.

The second loss in four games for the Icers (27-7, 24-5 ACHA) came one day after they needed a trio of third period goals to survive a late rally and defeat Davenport, an ACHA Div. II powerhouse, 4-3.

Even though yesterday's loss came with several Penn State starters inactive, opting to rest some minor bruises, and will have no affect on its national ranking or seeding in the national tournament, it didn't leave head coach Scott Balboni in the best of moods afterwards.

"We were playing to win each day and we didn't come out ready to play [Sunday]," Balboni said. "We've been taking teams for granted and coming out flat all year long, and we did it again [Sunday] against a team that isn't ranked as high as some of the other teams we play.

"We didn't come out and play our best hockey by any means."

For the Icers that didn't play Saturday, they watched Penn State break a 1-1 tie with Davenport in the third period with three unanswered goals from freshman forward Dave Herel, sophomore forwards Steve Peck and Jaime Zimmel.

However, the Panthers benefited from questionable officiating and netted two power-play tallies in the waning minutes to make the game much more interesting.

Yesterday, the Icers never had the luxury of getting a multi-goal lead. After sophomore forward Mark Orlando scored the first goal of the game, Oakland shut down Penn State's attack. Then, Will McMahon, the Grizzlies' leading-scorer, put the game out of reach with a hat trick in the final two periods.

For Balboni, the loss was not the ideal ending to team's final road trip of the regular season. But despite the Icers' lackluster performance, it doesn't change his confidence heading into the season finale and national tournament.

"It doesn't affect my feelings about nationals at all," he said. "This week, we are going to work very hard and we will be ready for nationals."