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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 4, 2018Steve RohlikSean RomeoMason JobstSasha LarocqueSaint Paul, Minnesota MODERATOR: We're joined by Ohio State. Coach, an opening comment. COACH ROHLIK: Again, we're really excited and honored to be here amongst three other great teams in this tournament. It's a long journey and a process. And I'm just really happy for our program, our university and especially these players. MODERATOR: Questions. Q. I would ask you about the offense and how the offense has adjusted to the loss of Weis and how the offense has performed all season? MASON JOBST: Yeah, we've made a couple of changes this year compared to the past. We're used to scoring five or six goals a night, last year it kind of seemed like, but you can't do it every night. So we've changed to a five-man system on defense. We all really believe in that, and that it will lead to offense. And with the loss of Matt Weis, obviously it was devastating to us and our team. You never want to lose a senior, especially in a moment like this. But he's been great. He's been a support and he's been with us this whole time, this whole ride. And we've got a lot of great players in there that stepped up and filled in for him. Q. Sean, does it feel surreal playing in the Frozen Four because you've had a crazy ride in the college game? But to finally get to here and this level, how does it feel for you? SEAN ROMEO: Yeah, it's not something I imagined I'd be doing a few years ago, but I knew when I committed here to this great university and I saw the kind of guys we had, I knew that it was something that was possible. And I knew from day one this year that we had a good chance of making this thing happen. So it was surreal until I got to Ohio State and then it kind of became something that was more of a realistic goal and something that was just kind of a dream. Q. Mason, just basically the last week and a half, what's sort of the, I don't know, mantra of the team or whatever about going into this and taking care of business, so to speak? What's just sort of y'all's approach? MASON JOBST: We're really anxious for sure. A week off, seems like it's been dragging on for a while now. But I think we wanted to approach the week we've been doing all year. We've been preparing really well in practice and that's what's been leading to our success all season. You get to this point you don't want to change up too much. Q. Sean, a lot's been made about how much better this team is defensively than it was last year. How much more confident a goaltender does it make you to have these guys playing as well as they have in front of you? SEAN ROMEO: It makes all the difference in the world. I know if I make a mistake they'll be there to pick me up and I know they're going to make my job easier. They've done a great job clearing the net for me, clearing rebounds and kind of giving me just a one-shot thing to worry about. So they've made my job easier and it helps a lot. Q. Steve, you coached for 10 years there at UMD. Tell us a little bit about that time and your relationships with Scott and with Brett as well. And, by the way, you lost that final that allowed them to get in this tournament, so it could come back to bite you, who knows? COACH ROHLIK: I'll take my chance right now. I mean, ten great years of my life, learned a lot. Scott gave me an unbelievable opportunity to learn as a coach on the ice, off the ice. Something I'll cherish obviously forever. But again as the hockey world moves on, for me my whole thing is about this program, these guys. I try to take with me wherever I am and try to make myself better and that's what I've tried to do. Certainly with Scott for 10 years, Brett two years at Duluth, two years down at Ohio State. Those friendships will never go away. But come tomorrow night, make no exception to it that we'll be out there competing. It's Ohio State versus Duluth, not Scott versus Steve. Q. Mason, when you got to Ohio State, the Big Ten was still a relatively new program -- or the conference. How have you seen the conference change or the teams in the conference improve? MASON JOBST: I think every single year it's gotten better since I've been here. The addition of Notre Dame has obviously made a big change to the league and a great change to the league. Anytime that you can play a university like that, it's only going to make you better and the league better. They were number one a good part of the year, and if you play the number one team in the country five times it's going to get you prepared for tournament time. Going in to the regional playing Princeton we haven't played a lot of ECAC teams, so you have to hope you've been prepared by your league. And as you can see I think the Big Ten did a pretty good job. Q. I know you heavily researched this but Leanne was telling me you grew up, what, a mile from the Indy 500? MASON JOBST: I did. Proud of it. Proud of the speedway. Q. Mason, your coach is pretty familiar with this area. Has he shown you guys anything special this week or any special meals or anything like that with the local knowledge? MASON JOBST: I mean, we've spent a pretty good amount of time here as well playing the U and then the Big Ten Tournament was here our freshman year. So we spent a little bit of time. We went out and had a nice meal last night. But Rohls, have anything else to show us? COACH ROHLIK: The only thing we need to do right here is play hockey right here. That's all we're concentrating on. Q. You had to go to some restaurants in Saint Paul. Give us some advice, Coach. Look at him, nothing? Mancinis? COACH ROHLIK: My dad would like to go to Mancinis. He looks old school. These guys are treated pretty well when we go and eat. Q. Where did you go last night? COACH ROHLIK: Louie's. Q. Mason, looking back to the way last season ended, that game, what kind of influence did that have on this team and what does it mean to see this Bulldogs team again? MASON JOBST: Obviously it was the first time we made to it the tournament in nine years. I think we were a little blinded by the lights and all that. But I thought we played a really well-played game and took them to overtime. It's nice to have a chance again this year to play the same team. Obviously they've got a lot of turnover and a lot of freshmen this year and stuff. But they wouldn't be here if they weren't a great team. And I think we're excited we get another chance at them. Q. Sasha, your coach talked all year about five men connected the way you guys have played. Where did you see it really come to fruition the first time and that it was going to be effective? SASHA LAROCQUE: I think we started seeing it right away in practice. The more we played together and got familiar with each other and each other's habits, from defense to forwards, we would go into games and feel confident, comfortable with each other. And I don't know if I could pick one time, per se, that it really came out and we saw that things were different. But I think in practice was the biggest thing where every day we were getting better and we could feel it and the guys were just getting more and more comfortable with the system. And obviously it's paid off pretty well for us up to this point and hopefully it continues on. Q. Steve, you talked about on the conference call last week that that loss last year kind of maybe made you guys appreciate -- and maybe being one of the last teams into the field -- made you appreciate what you have to do during the season. How did you see the guys' growth through the year? And when you were back in the NCAA Tournament, did you sense some more confidence in the guys as a No. 1 seed, not as the underdog, as you guys were in Fargo? COACH ROHLIK: Like I talked before, even earlier today, sometimes getting a taste is what you need. And it makes you want to come back. And certainly that loss hurt at the time, but I saw the motivation in our guys from this summer on. They talked a lot about let's make sure we're in a tournament from start to finish instead of waiting until the last day. And these guys were on a mission. Just an easy group to coach. They come to work every day. And I think that's been the biggest thing: Being consistent; wanting to get there and not wait until the end. And I think that's what you've seen out of this group from start to finish this year. Q. Would you say you kind of play with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder, as you went undrafted and you're kind of on the smaller size? And what do you think you would say to the naysayers that maybe think you're too small to play in the pros? MASON JOBST: I think I've had a chip on my shoulder my whole life. I've been undersized my whole life. A lot of guys coming out of college that have been undersized that are kind of paving the way for my size-type player, I guess you'd say, Conor Sheary and guys like that that are excelling at the NCAA and they can prove that they can play at the next level. You've got to be able to play a 200-foot game, you can't be a perimeter player when you're my size. And you have to produce to make it. And those guys have definitely laid the groundwork. Q. Three Big Ten teams and Minnesota-Duluth. But is it Big Ten pride at stake here or is it Ohio State pride that's driving you guys? SASHA LAROCQUE: I think we're focused on ourselves, so I would say it's a lot of Ohio State pride at this point. Obviously it's great for the confidence to have three teams in the final four here, the Frozen Four. But we're only focused on ourselves and we only want to go out and play our game, play the way we can and kind of have the chips fall from there. SEAN ROMEO: I think it's cool for you guys to write about that kind of stuff. It's cool for us to read about it. But, honestly, in the locker room, we don't care about who is here. We only care about us and that's about it. Q. Sasha, the game last year against Duluth was a while ago. They've changed a bit and you changed in your philosophy and tightened up on the defensive end. Is there still anything that you can take strategy-wise or personnel-wise from that game last year? SASHA LAROCQUE: I'm not sure so much strategy-wise or within the game, but there's still that feeling of unsettlement within our room that they took something away from us that we wanted, and we're going to come out and have that in the back of our mind that there's some unfinished business with Minnesota-Duluth. Q. Don Lucia, at his retirement presser, mentioned there's been some angst with Minnesota fans about joining the Big Ten and being in the Big Ten. What do you think having three Big Ten teams here can do to the perception of the conference amongst fans? COACH ROHLIK: Sometimes change is difficult no matter what you're doing. And it's certainly the tradition and history of the WCHA and what Minnesota was in. That's what we all remember. But what I think people gotta realize is jump on board because it is a great league. There's great universities and great venues and academics, look at the big picture. I think that's kind of what Don was talking about. I think as you can see what happened this year with the Big Ten, I think that's going to continue. So instead of fighting it, it's almost like get on board and be a part of it and support it. And I think that's kind of what he was talking about. Q. Scott already mentioned the parity in college hockey and how totally different now than even five, 10 years ago. What do you think has been the biggest driving factor for it? COACH ROHLIK: I agree 100 percent, the parity in college hockey is the most it's ever been in college hockey history from top to bottom. Recruiting early. Recruiting, I think sometimes in the past, the top teams kind of got their players and they could wait until the end to get those guys. Now recruiting, all of a sudden you see kids are committing at such an early age. We're all kind of taking chances. They're taking chances. We're taking chances. It's the nature of the beast. It's where it's gone. But at the same time I think that's a big part of why you see teams starting to even out across the country, and the work ethic, the coaches, what they put in. The 60 programs. There's no off switch. You've got to go. And if you don't, you're going to get passed up. Q. Just straight up, what concerns you most as you watch Duluth on video? What just catches your eye? COACH ROHLIK: Again, I think they're a lot like us. Their work ethic. They're relentless. Their speed. They're here for a reason. You watch video on them, obviously being with Sande, know how he coaches, know how their teams play, they're going to go 60 minutes. If it goes longer than that, they're going to go longer than that. We've got to be at our best. We've got to play our best hockey game tomorrow night. Q. Want to ask you, obviously John's had a really good season for you being a transfer. Coming into the season, seemed like you guys were sort of uncertain about how it was going to go in the net for you. I just ask you, what have you seen from him, and have you liked how he's been able to step in and take control? COACH ROHLIK: Having three senior goalies, it was a little nerve-racking coming into the year. But when Sean came in last year, I knew I had something special. His focus, what he did every day, his routine was off the charts. He never wavered. And he knew he was never going to play a game last year. He could have taken weeks off, months off, hey, I'll be ready for next year. But not Sean. Every day he was the same. When you see a focus in that -- there was a purpose why he came to the rink every day last year and it was for this moment, this year. And he's stepped in and took advantage and taken the ball and he's running with it. Q. Back when you were playing, did you ever think you'd have a kid from North Carolina? Pretty remarkable for hockey, huh? COACH ROHLIK: I've been there watching the Stanley Cup when the fans never sat down. So I knew things were a little bit different over there. But we're pretty fortunate to have him. That's where hockey's gone. Hockey is everywhere right. Now that's the sport. Q. Being a St. Paul Johnson youth player, playing at Hill-Murray, coaching at Hill-Murray, you have a lot of experience on this real estate. Do those memories come flooding back, and what do you think about the most when you think about St. Paul and hockey and your history here? COACH ROHLIK: It's my life. I was fortunate my dad worked at Hill-Murray High School for 25 years. I remember from the time I could walk, I was here. I was at every state tournament. I was at the old auditorium watching Phil Housley play as a high school kid. This was a dream. It's like a playground for me, being able to come down here and play as a Hill-Murray player, coach as a Hill-Murray coach, play as a college player, coach as a college player -- or as a college coach. Lots of memory, lots of history and it's a big part of my life. And it's fun to come back, but like I've told a lot of people, that's all great and dandy, but for me it's truly not about me, this is about Ohio State and about the 27 guys in our room. And that's truly our focus. Q. And the clear boards at the old Civic Center? COACH ROHLIK: Clear boards. Q. Some of you are from here, but this is the truth; it was clear boards. You could see right through them. Go back and find the pictures. Is everybody healthy? COACH ROHLIK: Everybody is good to go except obviously Matt. Q. Do you hear from a lot of people going into this weekend from Saint Paul, supporting you, giving you messages? And did you think when you were making that first leap into coaching high school and then going to Nebraska, Omaha, that this is where you would be? COACH ROHLIK: Again, you've got to pinch yourself sometimes. I'm the luckiest guy in the world coaching hockey 27 years. And truly blessed every day. I mean, Steve "Moose" Younghans, having a chance to be with him at St. Paul Johnson growing up and getting taught the ways of life and how to compete. Terry Skrypek, all he did was win and having a chance to play with him. Herb Brooks coached us in an All-Star team. And Jeff Sauer's from this area and to play for him. You're talking about mentors. Mike Kemp recruited me as a player. He turns around, years later, hires me, and gives me my chance in college as a coach. I just coached high school hockey and he hires me to -- this game as been so good to me, and I'm just so blessed to be around so many great people in this game and obviously the city's been a big part of that. MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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