The winds of change are blowing through the hills of Southeastern Ohio and should be arriving with full force this Friday and Saturday night at Bird Arena. The Ohio hockey team will take on Kent State in defense of its American Collegiate Hockey Association national championship.

A situation very familiar to the program.

Sean Stipp/THE POST
Seth Kitzer takes a water break during practice on Wednesday afternoon in Bird Arena.

The team won the title for the third consecutive time in March and is ready to make another run for the Caulder Trophy. Only this time they will have to take another path.

Last season's top scorers Dan Morris and Derek Partlo have graduated, leaving the Bobcats with a new plan of attack for this season.

"We had to go for better balance," head coach Craig McCarthy said. "There's no go-to guy this year. Partlo and Morris have moved on, and instead of relying on a couple big goal scorers we'll have to work hard to get ten guys with ten goals."

The balanced attack will feature forwards Bobby Smith, Greg Cherne, and Bill Roen, along with seniors Jason Geers, Ryan Schelien and Justin Wolf. The defense is led by Seth Kilzer and Brandon Alviano.

Six freshman are on the roster and will help round out the offensive and defensive schemes.

"We plan to win this season," McCarthy said. "We have a tough schedule and a lot of new guys will get thrown into the mix and tested early. We need to make sure we improve every week. Where we are right now is not as important as where we will be in March."

The Bobcats started last season strong, winning 14 of its first 15 games. But two losses to Ferris State started the team off to its worst slump in three seasons - going 4-7-2 over the next 13 games. The strong start last year might have led to a false sense of security, which makes this year's club weary of winning too fast, too soon.

"A win is not so important this early in the season," Smith said. "Sure we love winning, but if Kent were to beat us this weekend - who Ôcares'? At the end of the season I know we'll be in the play-offs. Kent won't be."

That may or may not be the case. Ohio doesn't know much about Kent, who it plays six times this season, or the rest of the Central State Collegiate Hockey League at this point.

Forward Chad Fournier believes the CSCHL teams are different every year, making it tough to know if a team will be great or just mediocre.

At least, every team except Ohio, Fournier believes.

"Our depth and coaching experience make us the exception to that rule," he said. "We have a lot of depth this season and everyone will be an asset. We are all good in different aspects of the game. This is a new team and we will take it game by game and proceed from there."

The team may be new but the style of play will not. Ohio's system hasn't changed in the last three years.

"What's funny is none of our opponents have been able to figure out a way to beat our system," Smith said. "The way we look at it is if it isn't broke don't fix it."

Between the pipes for Ohio this season will be reigning ACHA tournament Most Valuable Player Brody Danner. Matt Brown and Jordan Garwood will also see action in the net.

"It's safe to say we have the best goal-tending in the league," he said. "Brody played great for us in the tournaments and all three guys played well throughout the season."

On the sidelines for Ohio will be forwards Marcus Marazon, J.J. Bamberger and Brian Kelley.

All three were major contributors last season and are coming off injuries. They are expected back around winter break.

Until then the team will have to get past the loss of Partlo and Morris and concentrate on the task at hand.

"We have to build on what we do well early in the season and learn from what we do wrong," Roen said. "If that happens, the season will take care of itself and we will be in strong post-season position."