The Bobcats preparing for week two at Bird Arena after an opening weekend sweep.
Taking more than 100 shots over the course of two games is extremely hard to come by, but allowing only 17 shots in that same span is even more rare.
However, even given Ohio’s hot start last weekend, a long season awaits, which means a lot of time for an already-strong team to build and improve.
That opportunity for week-to-week improvement hasn’t been lost on anybody.
“We’ve been working on habits in practice to keep us from making stupid mistakes in the long run,” senior defenseman Michael Kretz said. “One of our biggest problems is that we have so many opportunities and we just haven’t been scoring. We just have to keep it simple.”
Ohio’s next challenge will be Pittsburgh, who will come to Bird Arena for a weekend series, after falling in both games of its opening series against University of Michigan-Dearborn, by scores of 7-4 and 8-1.
Ohio is coming off a weekend in which it defeated John Carroll by scores of 5-0 and 2-1, respectively. The Bobcats enter this weekend as the ninth-ranked American Collegiate Hockey Association team in the country.
Ohio’s performance against John Carroll, along with being a well-rounded display of domination over its opponent, allowed fans to breathe a little easier knowing the team has adjusted well to the system of first-year coach Sean Hogan. That adjustment to the new system will become more apparent as the season goes on and with another week of practice under their belt, should show even more this weekend.
“He likes an aggressive system,” Kretz said. “He wants to see an aggressive game, but we’ve only been skating three weeks. So, I think a big part of it is just getting in shape. Once we get a couple of weekends under our belt, where we’re skating hard and getting in shape, we’ll look a lot better than we have.”
Along with the increased physicality, there will be a lot to look for out of this team this weekend. Friday and Saturday’s games will be good chances for the Bobcats to show how they can dominate an inferior team for three periods, something they were able to do in the first game of their last series but not in the second game.
“Having a consistent effort every night is going to be the challenge for us,” Hogan said. “I think it’s important to our development that we don’t overlook our opponents, regardless of who we play. In any game, whether we’re up by a lot or down by a lot, we want our habits to be good. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re playing 100 percent and limiting their chances.”
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