After a tough weekend of being beat up by the University of Rhode Island, the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers can now breathe a weary sigh of relief.

The No. 4 Icers (6-3-2) are coming out better off than expected as far as injuries go in preparation for this weekend's contest against No. 2 Ohio University.

"We're in better shape than we first thought," Icers coach Joe Battista said. "We're resting a lot of guys, which in practice is a factor.

"We just feel it's better to let them rest."

In all, four players suffered significant injuries against the Rams last weekend. Luckily for the Icers, none of those injuries proved as serious as initially thought.

The worst scare came when senior defenseman Brendan Martin was knocked out of the game after taking a hard slash up high in the neck. The referee insisted that the stick caught Martin on the arm, not the head, Battista said.

With a doctor having to attend to Martin on the ice, it looked bad for the young Icers team, which would have been lacking in experience without the senior's leadership.

"The missed checking from behind and that high stick, to me that's inexcusable," Battista said. "The referees' first job is to protect the athletes. I was just very disappointed in the fact that they didn't make some of the calls."

One of these missed calls on a check from behind victimized another senior defenseman for Penn State, Matt Wallace, who was taken into the boards during Saturday's game.

Luckily, both Wallace and Martin could be good to go against Ohio, although Martin missed practice as it was determined he did not suffer a concussion.

"Our trainer was the busiest person on our bench for the weekend," Battista said.

The forwards kept the training staff just as busy as the defensemen too. Freshman Jamie Zimmel took a hard slash in the knee early in Saturday's contest and was out for the remainder of that game.

Then the Icers' second leading scorer, Mike McMullen, had to leave the game after re-aggravating a right shoulder injury initially suffered two weeks ago against Duquesne.

"It bothered me a little bit last week so I did rehab," McMullen said. "I felt all right on Friday but then I got banged up again on Saturday and couldn't finish the game -- I was just in too much pain."

Dodging another bullet, the Icers had Zimmel out on the ice yesterday in practice and in another stroke of luck, could see McMullen in the weekend's lineup as well.

The junior forward said he got the X-rays back and found out he suffered a bad sprain to the Acromioclavicular (AC) joint in his right shoulder.

"This week coach told me to take a day or two off and see how it feels," McMullen said. "I'm going to try to go this weekend -- I'm not sure yet."

The Icers could also see the return of freshman Brandon Rubeo, who did not travel with the team after suffering and injury against Duquesne two weeks ago.

With the tests and X-rays coming back negative, the Icers, while banged and bruised, look a lot better on paper for the weekend's games against a physical Ohio squad. However, if any of the players in question are not able to suit up, the younger Icers must be ready to fill in.

"Right now it's going to force some guys to step up and fill roles that they haven't had to," said senior captain Brett Wilson, who was also held out of yesterday's practice with pink eye. "Some guys may just need to ice all week and they'll be ready to go, but it just lets them know that at any time they could be tapped on to go in the lineup and fill a role."