With less than a minute left in yesterday's quarterfinal game, Icers players watched helplessly as the puck slowly slid into their empty net.
It was a startling realization that meant the No. 3 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers would miss their first national championship final in 10 seasons.
The Icers were eliminated from tournament play after No. 6 Liberty defeated them, 4-1. It was the first time Penn State failed to reach the semifinals since 1994.
"We had a couple small breakdowns, but other than that I really don't know what happened," senior Matt Schwartz said. "We had a lot more shots than they did and I felt that we outplayed them for pretty much the whole game."
Penn State never led against Liberty even though it outshot the Flames 39-16. Senior Jaime Zimmel scored the lone goal for Penn State on an assist from Schwartz.
The Icers seemed to outplay Liberty, but the Flames still had an advantage in momentum. Liberty notched a 7-1 win against Kent State on Saturday in contrast to Penn State's 2-0 victory over West Virginia, which proved to be a much more defensive first-round game.
The Icers had plenty of scoring opportunities yesterday, but their misfortune lasted through the third period when coach Scott Balboni pulled junior goaltender Nick Signet for an extra attacker with less than two minutes remaining. The move resulted in two empty-net goals.
"When the empty-net goal happened, it was tough to really think that this is going to be our last game of the season," junior Luke DeLorenzo said. "Until then I thought it was a pretty even game, but it really hit me after the empty-netters."
Between Liberty's pipes, senior goaltender Mike Binnie stopped all but one of Penn State's shots, with many acrobatic saves on the day. He robbed senior Michael McMullen with a diving glove save with six minutes left to deny the Icers from sending the game to overtime. He attributed his stellar play to his composure in net.
"I've been trying to do a better job of staying calm in the net this year opposed to previous seasons," Binnie told 87.5 FM after his team's victory. "I felt comfortable in net and all of our guys held it together to get the win."
The day before, Penn State came out slowly against West Virginia with little puck movement and only six shots on goal in the first period. Zimmel took advantage of a five minute Mountaineer major in the second period to add the Icers' second goal after junior Scott Dakan scored eight minutes earlier. Balboni said he was disappointed by the performance before the second period.
"Our guys came out and played down to the level of West Virginia," Balboni said. "I kind of laid into them during the first intermission and from that point on, I think we outplayed them for the rest of the game."
This marks the sixth year the Icers have won their conference championship but failed to capture a national title.
DeLorenzo said he was happy to accomplish two out of three goals in winning the regular and postseason ESCHL titles, but emptiness remained.
"We did succeed this season, but we didn't win the most important part," DeLorenzo said. "It just wasn't our year."
