ATHENS, Ohio - The first regular season rankings came out later Friday afternoon as the new #7 Davenport Panthers handed #2 Ohio their first loss of the season in a 5-4 shootout win.  DU improves to 6-1 on the year and will face the Bobcats again on Saturday at 7:30pm.

After sweeping #10 Liberty in Virginia last week, the Panthers returned to the ice today in Athens and faced Ohio University for the first time since 2007 when the two teams split at Bird Arena.

The host Bobcats got on the board with two consecutive goals in the opening period.  DU's Ben Dykstra (Kentwood, Mich.) then cut the margin in half late in the first with a power play goal to make the score 2-1 heading into the first intermission.  DU outshot the Bobcats 14-5.

After a scoreless second period, Dykstra then opened the final twenty minutes with a short-handed goal after DU fought off a 5 on 3 power play for Ohio.

Unfortunately, the tie would be short-lived as the Bobcats scored to go up 3-2 but their lead did not last long either as Davenport's Phil Wendecker (Westland, Mich.) tied the game with the first of his two third period goals for the rookie.

With only five minutes remaining, the host Bobcats scored a goal that looked to be the game winner but Davenport hung tough and with only 1:35 remaining, Wendecker scored the equalizer to send the game into overtime.

The extra period was not enough to decide the winner so the two teams went to a shootout.  Davenport got goals from Jeff Slusser (Kentwood, Mich.) and Ben Dykstra (Kentwood, Mich.) and held the host team to zero goals on two shots for the shootout victory.

Davenport and Ohio will take to the ice again on Saturday at 7:30pm.  Follow the action on Fasthockey.com