Following a disappointing loss last Saturday night at No. 3 Rhode Island, the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers immediately boarded their bus for a long ride back to State College.

In the early morning hours near the end of the trip, the No. 4 Icers passed near Bellefonte, Pa. Little did they know they would be there the very next day.

On Monday, Icers head coach Joe Battista brought the team to Woodcraft Industries, located in Bellefonte.

With two games against No. 2 Ohio University on tap at 9 tonight and 3:30 tomorrow afternoon, he felt the team needed some perspective from a different source.

Woodcraft owner and founder Jack Campbell spoke to the Icers about team building, and he should know, growing his wood furniture company from a single-car garage operation in 1984, coincidentally the year of the Icers first ACHA Championship, to its current Bellefonte-based 110,000 square foot manufacturing facility.

The Icers, yes, did go on a tour of the plant, but also watched game tape from the Rhode Island series and had a team meal.

"It was a good team bonding experience for us," Battista said.

It was all in preparation for the weekend, as the Icers (6-3-2) face the team that they defeated in last season's ACHA national semifinal game, the Ohio Bobcats (13-1-1).

"This rivalry has been a good one for a long time," Battista said.

"We've played each other almost every year four or five times. We seem to run into them in the national tournament almost every year one way or another."

The Icers, since a 3-0 start to the season, including a win against Division I Robert Morris, have gone 3-3-2 in their last eight games, hardly typical of Penn State teams of the recent past.

"The one thing we can't do is panic. We can't say, 'We lost a couple a games, tied a couple games.' We've got a tough schedule, and we've been through some real tough challenges," Battista said.

"We have to come together, we have to pull together. This is an opportunity for some guys to step up and show us what they have. I hope they do it."

Battista has said, in hindsight, the win against Robert Morris was one of the worst things that could have happened, making the team and fans feel overly confident in this year's young Icers team.

But this week, the focus of the team has been solely on Ohio, one of the Icers' most heated rivals since their inception back in the 1970s. Even freshmen like Luke DeLorenzo, the Icers' leading scorer, know what to expect from a game against the Bobcats.

"Games against Ohio, obviously as a freshman, I've never played in the them before, but I know the games are always close, they're always tight, and you have to capitalize on the mistakes the other team makes, and that usually determines the winner," DeLorenzo said. "If there's a good time to step up this is the time to shine."

Battista said that the team has had a great week of practice adding, "That Saturday night loss left a bad taste in our mouths."

As far as injuries, Battista yesterday reiterated that the Icers are in better shape than first expected earlier in the week.

All players have been cleared to play this weekend.