JON HELGASON/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA junior center Dave Loftus puts a shot on goal against Weber State earlier this season in the Tucson Convention Center.

If two consecutive losses ever made a distinctly positive statement, it happened at the Tucson Convention Center last weekend.

After falling to top-ranked and defending national champion Penn State 4-3 and 3-0, the Icecats showed the American Collegiate Hockey Association what they have believed all year long - UA can compete with every team in the nation.

"The bottom line is that I have always believed that we're a top-8 team," head coach Leo Golembiewski said. "We played (Penn State) tougher than the No. 2 team in the country. I do not think that they get outshot very often."

As gritty as their losing efforts were, UA realizes that last weekend's performance will become meaningless if the team does not perform at home this weekend against Colorado State.

The Rams bring an impressive resumŽ to Tucson including a pair of one-goal contests - a win and a loss - against No. 5 Iowa State. They meet an Icecats squad this weekend that will be playing without the services of senior co-captain Kevin Meehan.

The first-line center and team's third-leading scorer went down with a knee injury during Saturday's defeat. The extent of the injury will not be known until further tests are done, but Meehan is expected to miss the next two weekends of play.

"It's definitely going to hurt us, but hopefully someone else will step up for us once again," said linemate and senior co-captain Kyle Neary.

The Icecats have already danced around shoulder injuries to senior defenseman John Saunders and freshman forward Shaun Brooks earlier in the season.

Freshman Nick Woods has skated with the first unit during this week's practices, and perhaps will become another young Icecat called upon to provide an offensive spark this season.

Golembiewski said he hopes his team will use the battles from a week ago to prepare for a dangerous CSU squad, as his Icecats (10-3-1) near the end of a season long 16-game home stand.

Neary said this weekend is their chance to take another step forward after almost beating the nation's top team.

"We want to come out following those tough losses and make another statement," Neary said. "We want to show that it was not a fluke and we are one of the nation's top teams."

The puck drops tonight and Saturday at 7:30 at the TCC.