Ohio State is riding high after their Big Ten Semifinal win over Penn State and will play Michigan State this Saturday for the Big Ten Championship, but the conference announced their awards this season ahead of that matchup. Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik brought the Coach of the Year Award home to Columbus for the Buckeyes.
Now three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year @SteveRohlik chatted with the @BigTenNetwork crew.#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/lStRJ54IL7
— Ohio State Men's Hockey (@OhioStateMHKY) March 18, 2025
Coach Rohlik has now won this award for Ohio State three times. He won it back-to-back in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons. In the former, he took Ohio State to its second-ever Frozen Four, and in the latter, they won the Big Ten regular-season championship. This year he has Ohio State in the Big Ten title game and likely in the NCAA Tournament.
This would be his fifth time getting the Buckeyes into the field of 16 in the 11 seasons they’ve had the chance under Coach Rohlik (a 12th in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic). That would match their previous total as a program and all under coach John Markell (1995-2010), who was 280-267-56 as Ohio State’s head coach.
Steve Rohlik is 221-175-45 overall and 109-114-23 in arguably the best conference in college hockey, in the Big Ten. Rohlik has been everything Ohio State could want as the leader of their hockey program. Ohio State has had to contend with true college hockey titans in the Big Ten.
The rest of the Big Ten has 23 college hockey national championships, but since 2013, when Rohlik got hired, he has had Ohio State be a competitive program. They’ve had winning seasons in six of their last eight seasons.
Ohio State is now in their first Big Ten Championship game. It’s a tall order to take down Michigan State, but the Bucks should be an NCAA Tournament team, win or lose. Ohio State is 3-4 in the NCAA Tournament under Coach Rohlik. Hockey is on the rise in the state of Ohio the Buckeye coach has been a factor in its growth and success.