Thursday was the third day of classes for Ohio students, but the fourth day of practice for the Ohio ice hockey club team. The Bobcats started skating yesterday after three days of off-ice conditioning. Coach Craig McCarthy is putting the team to work to prepare for the team's challenging schedule and possibly a return to the ACHA national championship, which slipped through their grasp in a loss to Penn State last year.

The schedule

The team's schedule was recently released, which McCarthy calls the team's toughest since the mid-80s.

"We were number one (in the conference power ratings) last year, and this one is even tougher," McCarthy said.

The Bobcats open up at Michigan-Dearborn on October 2 and 3 and travel to Eastern Michigan for a two game set the following weekend. On Oct. 16, Ohio will host Laurier University, possibly the top college team in Canada, of whom McCarthy said would be the best team to play at Bird Arena in a decade.

"Their coach coached here in the mid-80s," McCarthy said. "They were scheduled to play (reigning NCAA champions) the University of Michigan, but that fell through so we scheduled them."

The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Bobcats after that. The week following the games against Laurier, the team goes to Penn State for a revenge matchup of last year's national championship. Then they return home to face Delaware, Western Michigan and Wisconsin-Whitewater.

"The first month will be interesting," McCarthy said. "We could have a solid 3-3, 4-4 record and really come out and fool a lot of people."

The Lineup

McCarthy lost seven players to graduation last season including goalie Brody Danner, captain Bill Roen and last year's leading scorer Justin Wolf.

The team has a strong core of returnees including Chad Fournier, Marcus Marazon and last year's rookie of the year Greg Benedetti.

On the eve of the first skating practice, 40 players were trying out for 26 spots.