JOHN HELGASON/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore forward Mickey Meehan shoots at the Utah State goal in Arizona's 12-3 win Saturday night. UA split its weekend contests with Utah State and Weber State.

Some say that a team learns more after a loss than a win. That theory held true Saturday night, when the Icecats ended their weekend series the way they would have liked to start it ÷ with a 12-3 romp over Utah State.

The win came on the heels of a 4-3 overtime defeat to Weber State on Friday night at the Tucson Convention Center.

"We just didn't get the performance we needed (on Friday)," UA head coach Leo Golembiewski said. "We made some adjustments between games, a few of them psychological, and were able to come back strong in the second game."

While the potent Icecat offense seemed to take a break on Friday, with the only scoring being a goal each by senior defenseman Bill Pardue, senior forward Dave Loftus and sophomore forward Mickey Meehan, it was a completely different story the next night.

Meehan lit the lamp with 13 minutes to go in the first period to get the scoring underway, with the Icecat attack not letting up until the final buzzer sounded and nine different UA players had put the puck in the net.

Freshmen forwards Brian Pollack and Cole Dunlop added their first career goals as Icecats in the first, with Dunlop's coming off an assist from Aronchick. Sophomore Don Holtz and junior Matt Naylor rounded out the scoring in the first, giving Arizona a 5-1 lead after one period of play.

The team continued with a balanced attack throughout the rest of the game, as Mike Pelletier, Mike Smith, Shaun Brooks and Andrew Fredericks all added goals of their own.

Aronchick backstopped another solid game in net, saving 16 of 17 shots through two periods, before being lifted for sophomore goaltender Rick Karasch, who finished the game for Arizona between the pipes.

In the first of two games, the Icecats found themselves down 3-2 in the third period against Weber State, when Meehan tied things up on an assist by Keith Mitchell.

Despite a strong showing by the Icecats' defensive unit, on a night in which sophomore goaltender Bryan Aronchick stopped 26 of 29 shots, they could not bail their offense out of it, with Weber State's Christopher Smith scoring the game-winner two minutes into the extra frame.

"They came out harder than us ÷ it's that simple," Meehan said. "We overlooked Weber State and were looking too far ahead at the upcoming schedule."

The team travels back East this week, playing at top-ranked Penn State on Thursday and at No. 4 Delaware on Friday and Saturday.

Penn State is the two-time ACHA defending national champion, but Naylor said he knows that if anyone is capable of dethroning the champs ,it's them.

"We are going (to Penn State and Delaware) to try and reinforce our place in this league," Naylor said. "In order to be the best, we have to knock off the best. These are our biggest games of the year."