YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The scene was all too familiar, painfully familiar, for the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers.

Most couldn't even bare to watch as the tenth-seeded Oakland Golden Grizzlies celebrated their first national tournament title after stunning top-seeded Penn State, 5-1, in the finals of the ACHA National Tournament last night at the Ice Zone.

Standing at the blue line with helmets still on and sticks still in hand, the Icers, once again, had to watch their season come to a bitter end with their championship game opponent hoisting the Murdoch Cup.

For the fourth straight season, Penn State fell one win short of capturing its eighth national title, while Oakland won its first title in its first year at the Div. I-level and its third overall in the last four years.

After the game, Scott Balboni reiterated his team's youth -- an area of concern for him all season -- as the reason for the loss.

"I think we made a lot of young mistakes, and that's what really cost us," Penn State's first-year head coach said. "We're a young team. Twenty of our 28 guys are either freshmen or sophomores ... and the nervousness of the younger guys led to key mistakes and turnovers."

For most of the Icers, the loss marked the second time or third time they had to settle for the runner-up trophy. But that didn't make it any less difficult.

"It's never easy to accept a loss in the national championship," junior forward Sean Kenney said. "Actually, it's kind of tougher to stomach this knowing that the third period has always been our good period, and we went out and gave up that many in the third is what makes it the toughest."

It's safe to say that Penn State owned the third period all season. In 35 regular-season games, the Icers outscored their opponents by 35 in the last frame. On this day, however, the final 20 minutes belonged to Oakland.

The Grizzlies tallied four goals in the last period to put a close, 1-1 battle out of reach and cap their improbable Cinderella story.

"To be honest, I would have told people to buy a one- or two-day pass at most," said Oakland forward Will McMahon, who scored eight goals in four games this week and was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

McMahon tallied the first four goals in last night's national title game and was a big factor in his team's run through No. 7 Lindenwood, No. 15 Michigan-Dearborn, and No. 3 Illinois in the first three rounds.

Earlier this season, he scored three goals in a 4-1 win against Penn State. And doing it again, on the biggest stage against a team that has won seven national championships, only made it that much sweeter.

"Penn State is a dynasty. It means everything to beat that team," he said. "If we beat somebody else, like a No. 5 or No. 6 seed, people would say that we got a lucky break because we didn't play Penn State. But no, we had to beat Illinois and then Penn State. So that proves that we were the best team in this tournament."

While McMahon and his teammates soaked up every second of their upset victory, the Icers could only pack their bags and look forward to next season.

"Second won't be good enough," forward Paul Zodtner said.

But, for one more year, second is a distressing reality.