Early in the third period of Saturday's 5-3 win over No. 15 Oakland, Penn State's Steve Thurston corralled the puck behind his own net and looked to pass it to forward Tim O'Brien.

But O'Brien yelled to his teammate that he didn't want the puck -- at least not yet. Seconds later at the other end of the ice, O'Brien buried a goal past Oakland goalie Alex Pikunas to salt away the victory. The win gave the No. 2 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers a weekend sweep over the Golden Grizzlies after the Icers won Friday's contest 5-1.

"We knew we had to come in and play two strong games," O'Brien said Saturday. "They were coming out to get into the [ACHA National] Tournament because they were the 15th seed. It's just a stepping stone to keep us getting used to winning games."

O'Brien led the Icers' offensive attack over the weekend, netting three goals and dishing out an assist. However, the teams' defensemen also stepped up and contributed several key offensive plays.

Thurston scored a pair of goals Friday night and senior John Conte had a four-point game Saturday, including three assists.

"I think it just has a lot to do with reaching that point in the year where you can't be making mistakes on the blue line and just finding seams to get the puck to the net," Conte said Saturday night. "I think we did a good job getting it through [Friday] night and tonight I was just able to find the seam and get a little bit of luck."

Conte's assists in Saturday's game came primarily from taking shots from the point and letting Penn State's forwards finish around the net.

As a result, O'Brien and freshman Ryan Paradis notched goals from redirecting Conte's shots.

"I've been talking to him for a little while now about just getting his feet moving and not trying to do too much -- just get the puck to the net and the puck will find its way in," Icers assistant coach Bill Downey said.

"As long as you get it through the first line of defense, more often than not we'll win the battles inside."

In addition to the strong play of Thurston and Conte offensively, the Icer defense also provided the team with multiple highlight-reel plays.

Less than a minute into Friday's game, Oakland had a breakaway rushing toward Penn State's net. Icers goalie Nick Signet left the crease to play the puck but was caught out of position, leaving an open net. As an Oakland forward fired the puck on goal, Penn State defenseman Craig Brooks slid in front of the net to block the shot.

"They saved me a couple times, definitely," Signet said of his defensemen. "Brooks made the stop right there on the goal line.

"I definitely was out of position, but I think they've been playing pretty well."

Brooks said the defensemen were forced to block a number of shots because they were not effective in getting the puck out of the defensive zone.

"We thought as a core defensive group we weren't doing a good enough job getting the puck out," Brooks said. "We were making mistakes. The reason we were blocking so many shots was we weren't making a crisp first pass, so we had to recover and do whatever we had to do to keep it out of the net."

Thanks to the number of blocks in each game over the weekend, the Golden Grizzlies were only able to muster 40 shots combined over the two-game series. Penn State, on the other hand, rattled off 77.

O'Brien said the series was important to keep the Icers momentum as they move into the postseason.

"If we continue this streak of getting two wins on a weekend next weekend, we'll repeat as league champions," O'Brien said.

"Then we'll go take care of business against Pitt before Nationals and go from there."