After dominating No. 6 Delaware on Friday night, the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers met suspended coach Scott Balboni with laughs and celebrations in the locker room.
His message was simple: come out with the same intensity in Saturday's game.
The No. 2 Icers didn't disappoint, as they scored three goals in the first period and cruised to a 4-1 victory.
Last year, and in some Saturday games this year, Penn State has come out flat in the second game of the weekend, leading to losses or hard fought battles against weaker opponents. The Icers didn't give the same benefit to Delaware.
"It's absolutely huge to jump out in front early and take them out of their gameplan," Penn State junior forward Frank Berry said. "We carried over the momentum from last night and came out flying today."
The Icers won the battles for loose pucks early and dictated play throughout the game, but the two goals they scored in 13 seconds during the first period was the turning point that gave the Icers a cushion.
"We're an older, more mature team this season, and just kept getting the puck deep and banging in there," Balboni said. "We came out slow [Friday] night, which is a mental problem we didn't let happen again."
Balboni wasn't on the bench for Friday's game as he was serving a one-game suspension from the ACHA because of arguing with referees. Assistant coach Matt Bertani led the team to a 3-0 victory, despite a slow start that saw the Icers get outshot 8-6 in the first period.
One aspect preventing the slow start on Saturday was the team's ability to keep the intensity level high from the third period of the previous night.
"We had to come back just as hard Saturday and keep the momentum from Friday's game," freshman defenseman Carey Bell said. "We knew it was a must because we didn't want to let [Delaware] hang around like in the past."
A key in jumping out early Saturday was the improved play of the penalty-kill. The Icers killed off two penalties in the first period, which set-up the opportunity to score twice late for a 3-0 lead heading into the second.
The defensive zone coverage was also strong early, as Penn State limited Delaware to seven shots through the first 30 minutes of the game.
In a weekend with the Icers short-manned because of injuries, it was imperative for them to play their best for 60 minutes both nights.
"We went back and reviewed tapes from last season, and found out most of our mistakes were mental," Balboni said. "It was a great weekend on the penalty-kill and defensively, and coming out hard [Saturday] made a huge difference."
