The Ohio club hockey team opens play tonight against host Delaware in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I Tournament in Newark, Del.

No. 4 Ohio (18-9-3), ACHA Champions in1995, 1996 and 1997, will be challenged in its quest to play in its fifth straight finals. In addition to Delaware, the Bobcats also draw No. 9 Eastern Michigan Thursday and No. 1 Iowa State Friday in Pool A action.

This year, the ACHA has reverted to the 10-team format from 1997 after inviting eight teams last winter. Eastern Michigan (Pool A) and Towson (Pool B) won play-in games last night to qualify for round-robin play.

The Bobcats' first game is against the fifth-ranked Blue Hens (20-8-3) at 7 p.m. tonight. Ohio shut out Delaware 3-0 Oct. 30 at Bird Arena, but the parameters will be drastically different on the ice of Fred Rust Arena. At 200 feet by 100 feet, this Olympic-sized rink is 10-feet longer and 15-feet wider than the ice surface at Bird.

"The first game is going to be tough," Ohio head coach Craig McCarthy said. "Delaware is already going know what they've got on the big ice. We're going to be figuring it out as we go along."

Ohio meets Eastern Michigan Thursday at 1 p.m. in the second game of round-robin play. The Eagles beat No. 8 Illinois 3-1 to join Pool A, but have lost three of five games against the Bobcats this season.

Iowa State (31-4-2) is Ohio's third opponent, as they battle Friday at 1 p.m. The Cyclones won the last meeting 5-3 at the Central States Collegiate Hockey League Tournament Feb. 20 as they went on to claim the league championship. In the only previous game this season the teams tied at 4 at Iowa State in December.

"I'd have to say after seeing all the teams, the Cyclones are the team to beat right now," Ohio defenseman Jordan Cardillo said. "But they are beatable. Any one of five or six teams can be the best team on any given night. It comes down to which team comes out and plays the strongest and the best defense."

The 'Other' Pool

It's easy to forget about the other bracket when Pool A has the No. 1 seed, the event's host and a school that has appeared in the past four finals, but don't count out a championship run by a team from Pool B. There is no guarantee which team will represent the pool in the finals Saturday at 7 p.m.

This half of the bracket has the defending-champion Penn State Icers, perennial powerhouses Michigan-Dearborn, Arizona and No. 7 Towson, which defeated Western Michigan 4-3 in last night's play-in round.

No. 2 Penn State (23-3-3) enters the tournament with a 12-3-3 mark against the other teams in the tournament, though two of the losses have come at the claws of the third-ranked Michigan-Dearborn Wolves (24-9-1). The Icers, on the basis of their championship last season, though, remain the team to beat, McCarthy said.

All Ohio games will be broadcast on WOUB-AM 1340, while the remainder of the games can be heard on the Internet via WVUD-FM at http://udel.edu/~milo/acha.html.