However, PSU struggled competitively through the middle part of the 2000s, thanks to issues with recruitment and retention, coaching continuity and cash flow – including a low point when the Lady Icers had to cancel a trip to the 2007 ECWHL playoffs for financial reasons.

Mary Kate Tonetti led the push – an effort that would later help her win the ACHA's Off-Ice MVP Award for the 2012–13 season – along with 2011–12 Lady Icers teammates Carly Szyszko, Allie Rothman, Katie Vaughan, Ashton Schaffer and Sarah Eisenhut.

Former Lady Icers assistant Patrick Fung was eventually brought on as head coach, while freshmen like Devon Fisk, Mandy Mortach, Jackie Saideh, Nina Elia and Tara Soukup helped fill out a small roster that included just 13 players when the re-christened team played its first-ever game, a 2–1 overtime loss to California (PA) at BladeRunners Ice Complex in Bethel Park, PA.[16] Penn State's home rink in 2012–13, purportedly, was the same Penn State Ice Pavilion used by the Lady Icers.

PSU did manage one off-campus home contest, a blowout of Slippery Rock on December 9, 2012, at Galactic Ice in nearby Altoona, PA.[17] The twin themes of a thin schedule entirely on the road and a light roster would dominate most of the regular season, although key wins over Michigan State and particularly over West Chester (then the second-ranked team in the East Region, one of two in ACHA Division 2) helped Penn State sneak into the ACHA National Tournament as the number four team in the East Region, the final available bid.

With the top seed in the semifinals already secure after just the pair of games, the Lady Ice Lions tied with North Dakota State (3–3) to close the pool round of the tournament.

With the Blue Devils leading 1–0 midway through the third period, a Soukup shot on the power play from the top of the left circle flew through Fisk and past Stout goalie Kaye Collier.

Following the remainder of regulation, a five-minute first overtime and nearly four minutes of a second one, Elia pushed home a third-chance transition goal after tries by Fisk and Elizabeth Denis to send the team to the national championship game.

Nearly all of the senior-free 2012–13 squad returned (with second-leading scorer Mortach a notable exception), this time with a little bit of depth, thanks to a strong freshman class including future captains Lucy Yeatman, Anna Marcus and Cassie Dunne.

Newness came in form of the Penn State's joining a conference for the first time, College Hockey East (CHE), a league that included Cal, West Chester and Delaware and guaranteed a robust schedule.

[20] Other than, notably, an intense rivalry with Cal that saw the teams split six overall meetings in 2013–14, high expectations and the remainder of the schedule proved no burden as Penn State ran up a 14–2–2 regular season record, 6–2–2 of which came within the CHE to take the league's regular-season title.

[21] At nationals a familiar pattern emerged, as Penn State opened with another tight win over Alaska (3–2), then topped Delaware (3–0) to once again wrap up a trip to the semifinals in short order.

This time though, the repeat low-stakes game against NDSU and eventual Zoë M. Harris Player of the Year Kacie Johnson resulted in a dominating 5–2 Penn State win featuring two goals by Marcus.

Fisk then added her own brace, with Vaughan making 20 necessary saves, as the Lady Ice Lions held on for a 2–1 victory over frequent nemesis Cal to head back to the ACHA Division 2 championship game.

However, PSU once again came up short in the final, this time to Iowa State and tournament MVP Millie Luedtke, who scored the game's only goal on the power play with 7:21 remaining in the third period.

[23] Numerous key players from the Division 2 seasons also remained, including Fisk, Schaffer, Saideh, Elia and Tonetti, while the regular incoming class was highlighted by Kelly Watson, Riley O'Connor, Claire Gauthier and Tarika Embar.

Tonetti, despite being a senior, was also an addition in a sense, as she was finally able to move back to her natural goaltending position after two years playing forward in order to balance out the occasionally-wobbly roster count.

Even with the team's rapid growth, an uneven start to the season followed, as an opening sweep at Vermont was tailed by a somewhat uninspiring pair of wins against Delaware (now in a lower division, of course) and a goal-less weekend at Massachusetts.

Although Kern returned for a senior year in 2015–16 and once again posted stellar numbers (46 points, again among the national leaders), the Lady Ice Lions found their roster turnover too heavy to overcome and took the first step backward in team history, stumbling to a 5–20–2 overall record and finishing unranked.

[28] † Although Penn State qualified for the 2010 ECWHL playoffs and was slated to play Massachusetts in the semifinals, the team was unable to travel to hosting Rhode Island due to weather concerns, resulting in UMass' automatic advancement to the championship game.

Four Lady Icers players and head coach Mo Stroemel were part of the 2011 squad that finished fourth in Erzurum, Turkey during USA Hockey's first trip to WUG.

Although Russia bounced back to top Team USA in a shootout in the tournament semifinals, the Americans recovered to defeat Japan 3–1 for the bronze medal – thanks to another stellar effort from the Penn Stater, with 37 saves on 38 Japanese shots.

While Smiddy's iteration of the squad was the only one since 2011 to not make it to the semifinals, finishing fifth, the defenseman did play a key role in her side's biggest highlight by assisting on Emily Ford's overtime goal that capped a come-from-behind win over Kazakhstan.

[92] Rather infamously, from a Penn State perspective, the former Lady Icers team struggled mightily with perennial contender Rhode Island while both were ECWHL members from 2003 to 2012, with the Rams owning a 34–2–1 record against PSU during that time.

Cara Mendelson, Anna Marcus and Riley O'Connor scored for the Lady Ice Lions, with the latter's game-winning goal helping her subsequently collect ACHA rookie of the month honors.

[93] Whatever payback was owed for the nationals bid was exacted pretty thoroughly during the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, as a resurgent Rams team topped a struggling PSU in all ten meetings during those years, including second and third consecutive victories in the ECWHL semifinals.

[94] UMass has been arguably the ECWHL's top team since Penn State's re-entry through the Women's Ice Hockey Club, with league playoff titles and ACHA tournament bids in 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17.

[25][28] The first was on the strength of Mendelson's winner on January 10, 2015, with the 2–1 victory against then-fifth-ranked UMass a hefty pillar in the Lady Ice Lions' case for eventual inclusion in the 2015 ACHA National Tournament.

Late in the Lady Ice Lions' first season, 2012–13, the team managed a road split with West Chester, the squad then ranked second in ACHA Division 2's East Region.

The first two of those, at Pegula Ice Arena on November 9 and 10, 2013, saw PSU gain a measure of revenge with decisive 3–0 and 6–3 wins in a powder keg of a series that saw three Elizabeth Denis goals as well as a fight between Soukup and Dobson.

[98] The ACHA issued suspensions for four players from each team, each of which were for one game, except for a five-game ban handed to Lady Icers superstar Andrea Lavelle, who "was clearly an instigator in the situation and refused to obey the repeated directions of the referees to vacate the area".