There were no nets at either goal line at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion Tuesday.

Instead they were positioned on the center ice line, with the entire Penn State Icers team cheering while standing on the blue lines.

The coaching staff created a hockey equivalent of a steel cage match, with players working down low around the crease and the net. The offensive players tried to score, while the defensive players were working on clearing the rebounds.

It was a drill to help the Icers improve on getting pucks away from the net, sometimes known in hockey terms as "clearing the garbage."

"We're trying to make space a lot smaller for the guys," Penn State coach Scott Balboni said, "and for the guys to get used to picking up sticks and covering guys in small areas with a lot of people in small areas. We're gonna continue to work on that for the next couple of weeks until we get better at that."

If there was one thing lacking from the Icers' dominant wins against West Virginia last week, it's that the Icers had problems at times getting the puck out of tight spots.

At least two goals last weekend came from Penn State not being able to get the puck out of the zone. The Mountaineers subsequently capitalized, banging the puck into the net in the middle of goal-mouth scrambles.

The irony is that this comes with the other facets of the Icers' collective game finally coming together. With four forwards out of the lineup this weekend, Balboni has still been able to get consistent scoring from his forwards, while the young defensive corps is finally starting to gel.

Penn State has its longest winning streak of the season heading into a two-game series with Navy this weekend, which kicks off a four-game road trip. It also doesn't hurt that Penn State is 36-6-0 all time against Navy.

The Icers feel the only thing holding them back right now is their defensive coverage down low.

"We feel we can prevent a lot of goals by picking up sticks and putting away pucks from the front of the net," sophomore forward Paul Daley said. "That was one thing that Coach talked about in the meeting that they wanted us to work on this week was picking up men around the net, picking up sticks and getting the puck out of there."

Getting the puck away from the crease can also only mean more success for goaltender Teddy Hume, who's gaining more and more confidence with every start. But Balboni said his team will continue to work on the defense down low until it improves.

"Taking away the one or two extra goals that we've been giving up will definitely help us, make us more confident," Daley said. "It's all part of the process, and it will definitely help us out in the long run."