After 15 seasons with John Markell as coach, the Ohio State men’s hockey team has a new man at the helm.

Mark Osiecki, a former assistant with the University of Wisconsin, was hired as the eighth coach in team history on Saturday.

Osiecki served the past six seasons as the top assistant to Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves, and helped lead the team to the 2006 NCAA Championship and the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship game in 2010.

“It’s never easy to make a coaching change,” said associate athletic director Chris Schneider. “But it was time to make an appropriate change and there is excitement for a new beginning.”

Osiecki said he was excited when he learned Saturday that he had been hired.
“When the job opened, the Wisconsin athletic department told me to look into it and had good things to say about the Ohio State athletic department,” he said.

Schneider said he was looking for a coach that could bring some sustained success to the hockey program.

“We expect our programs to be competing regularly in the NCAA,” Schneider said.

Osiecki gave credit to the previous regime for helping to build some of the tradition around the program, but says it’s his staff’s job to continue the tradition.

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“Our job is to make our players better young men in their lives,” Osiecki said. “But we also hope to see many of these players continue to play hockey after Ohio State.”

Osiecki was the recruiting coordinator at Wisconsin and handled the defensive responsibilities.

Some of the players Osiecki worked with during his time as an assistant coach that have moved on to the NHL include San Jose Sharks center Joe Pavelski and Chicago Blackhawks forward Adam Burish.

Osiecki has earned a reputation as being intense and working hard to get the most out of his players, a quality the OSU athletic department was working to find for the position.

“We were looking for somebody who can believe in the direction we want to go, and take it to a level of consistent competition,” Schneider said.

Osiecki said he knows several of the players from recruiting trips, including Peter Boyd and Sergio Somma, but will have to take some time to evaluate the roster before the 2010-2011 season starts. 

“The locker room is filled with good players and I look forward to building on the tradition of the coaches who have come before me,” Osiecki said.

Despite the departures of forward Zac Dalpe and center Hunter Bishop to NHL entry-level contracts, Schneider believes the team still has plenty of talent for the upcoming season.

“We have a very talented team in place, even without Zac Dalpe,” Schneider said.

It didn’t take long for Osiecki to grasp OSU’s rivalry with Michigan.

“Anytime you face Michigan, it’s a lot of fun,” Osiecki said. “It’s our job to make sure we’re prepared for that.”