At Propel East Charter School in Turtle Creek, a large aluminum foil Stanley Cup stands right next to a placard recognizing the school for meeting federal achievement benchmarks.

For school principal and Penguins season ticket holder Sandra Grassel, those two symbols are one and the same: examples of setting a goal and working to attain it. And so Ms. Grassel has made the Penguins run to the Stanley Cup into much more than just a sporting event.

"We're talking to the kids every day about how important it is to play as a team, to learn, to work with others," she said. "That's what you're going to have to do your whole life."

A giant poster hangs in the school's lobby, with students' pictures next to Penguins' pictures surrounding the words, "The Faces of Champions."

Students made smaller posters for a schoolwide poster contest, with sayings such as "Pens Are A Team Like East."

When the Penguins announced their "Student Signs for Stanley" contest a week ago, in which schools submitted videos showing their Penguins spirit, Propel East was quick to enter.

The Penguins organization received videos from 17 schools with just a week's notice, said Ron Porter, a consultant who is running the contest for the Penguins. The winning school will receive $5,000, with the second and third place finishers receiving $3,000 and $2,000.

To make the videos, students held mock Stanley Cup games, spelled out "Let's Go Pens" in parking lots and ballfields and waved white rally towels in school assemblies. Entries came from all corners of the region, from Highlands School District to Elizabeth Forward to Montour.

"It was just an illustration of how students and teachers can come together under the gun, so to speak," said Mr. Porter, who recused himself from judging the contest winners because he is also on the board of Propel Schools.

"They had a short time to pull together and did it remarkably well."

The Penguins will announce a winner today or tomorrow, said Mr. Porter. The videos are viewable by going to YouTube and searching for "Student Signs for Stanley."

For 12-year-old Oni Grego, a 6th-grader at Propel East, the video was a chance to show his support for the Penguins above and beyond just wearing a jersey to school.

Along with several of his classmates, Oni participated in the video by doing a voiceover. "We are two teams, two different teams, both with strong work ethics reaching for a common goal," one student recites on the video.

Ms. Grassel feels comfortable promoting the Penguins to her students because she feels like the team makes an effort to be good role models. "One of the things I love about the Penguins is that I find them so inspiring," she said.

With the students so hyped up about the Stanley Cup, however, the Penguins' current scoreless status is a lesson in itself.

You could call it facing adversity, or what you do when the chips -- or pucks -- don't fall your way.

"Even if we don't get it right, if we lose, we try again," said 11-year-old Indira Latouche, a 6th-grader who also did a voiceover on the video.

"You just try harder," said Oni. "It's not about winning all the time. If you have fun, that's the most important thing."