In the wake of their first losses of the season, it's no surprise the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers feel like hitting someone.

Unfortunately for the No. 4 Ohio University Bobcats, they will be on the receiving end.
The two teams will square off at 9 tonight and 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

Last weekend, the No. 1 Icers suffered their first two losses of the season to a No. 2 Illinois team which used its oversized ice surface to its advantage.

"Because their rink was so large, we were kind of chasing them around a little bit," junior forward Lukas DeLorenzo said. "I think that's why we were a little undisciplined."

Along with correcting undisciplined play, Penn State head coach Scott Balboni said his team would be working on dealing with heavy physical contact.

"We're trying to prepare for a very physical contest against OU," Balboni said. "If you go anywhere in the rink, you're going to get hit or banged around and we're trying to get our guys ready for that."

Much of practice this week was devoted to hitting and puck movement around the goal. The preparation was a clear sign of the rough and tumble games Balboni predicted.

Throughout drills, screams of "penalties, no more damn penalties!" were heard from the ice. None of the players wanted to continue the frustration of shorthanded play from last weekend.

At Illinois, the Icers (4-2-0) had 45 minutes of penalties. Balboni said that would change against Ohio.

"They were hooking, punching and cross checking people, just taking real undisciplined dumb penalties," he said. "I think we can play a good, solid, physical game and stay out of the penalty box this weekend."

Although the Bobcats have lost three games this season, they all came against ranked opponents. Balboni said game planning and home ice-advantage will be key against Ohio.

"They're a very good team. They're very quick and they play very physical," Balboni said. "It's one of our biggest rivalries of the year, it'll be a big fan base in here and it will be crazy."

The second ACHA rankings will also be announced today, which will likely put the Icers third or fourth in the division.

DeLorenzo said that even though the losses from Illinois hurt the team and will likely drop their rank, all the players are focusing on the future.

"We'll definitely bounce back strong," he said. We realize what we did wrong and as coach said at the team meeting on Monday, we're just going to put those games behind us."

Balboni said the Icers will just be looking to "get our systems in shape and just try to play better hockey."

DeLorenzo is just looking forward to playing hockey.
"We're excited to play this weekend," he said. "We'll be here at home and we know we can play physical with any team in the league. But right now, we're just going to worry about Ohio."