The Bobcats started the 2009 season strong by sweeping Mercyhurst last weekend.
This weekend, Ohio (2-0) is set to faceoff against the Youngstown State Penguins. The upcoming series is the first of the year for Youngstown State, which is coming off of a strong campaign a year ago in which they upended nationally-ranked programs, including Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
During the 2008-09 season, the Penguins found themselves ranked for the first time in the program's three-year history. Ohio players said although they don't know a lot about Youngstown State as a team, they will not look past them.
A lot of the younger guys don't know a whole lot about them
forward Tyler Pilmore said. But we won't overlook them. We're focused on them this weekend.
The Bobcats began the season with a 3-1 victory last Friday, followed by a 5-0 blowout win over the Lakers on Saturday. The series finale featured an all-out brawl between the two teams after what appeared to be a premeditated fight drawn up by the Mercyhurst coaching staff.
When asked what the team needed to improve on from last week to this week, Ohio coach Dan Morris said his team needs to focus on doing a better job scoring goals when they have the opportunity.
I would like to see us finish when we have our chances Morris said. But it's early.
This weekend's matchup also presents a difficult task in replacing five players serving one-game suspensions as a result of the fight.
Starting goaltender Paul Marshall, forwards Billy Hemann and Jake Holzemer and defensemen Mark Tracy and Chris Perko will all sit out tonight's game.
Senior goaltender Chris Carlson, who backstopped the Bobcats to their league title last season, is expected to make his first start of the season after recovering from an offseason knee surgery.
Morris said he has been switching up the lines all week in order to compensate for the suspensions.
The team will also focus on gelling as a unit and becoming more comfortable with the system.
We struggled with our chemistry a bit last week Pilmore said.
Second-year defenseman Justin Farmer agreed.
We need to play together
he said. We don't know much about them
but we go into the weekend the same as every week. As long as we play our game
it doesn't matter who we play.
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Sports
Rob Ogden
