On March 25, 2018, Sean Romeo backstopped Ohio State to a 5-1 upset of defending national champion Denver in the NCAA Midwest Regional final, sending the Buckeyes to their first Frozen Four since 1998 and earning him the region's Most Outstanding Player award. Romeo, the goaltender behind that run and a two-year professional career that followed, died on October 24, 2026, in Cary, North Carolina, the town where he grew up, at 31.

Romeo learned the position in the United States Hockey League, playing four seasons and 100 games for the Youngstown Phantoms before he enrolled at the University of Maine in 2014. He started 21 games there as a freshman, then lost his hold on the net the following season. In 2016 he transferred to Ohio State and sat out a year under NCAA transfer rules before he played a single game in scarlet and gray.

The wait changed him into one of the better goaltenders in the country. In his first season back on the ice, Romeo carried a .925 save percentage, ninth nationally, and started all but four of the Buckeyes' games. He earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors, became the first Ohio State player named a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, and set a school record with a 204:27 scoreless streak in November 2018, the first goaltender in program history to post shutouts in three consecutive starts (Ohio State Athletics).

Ohio State's Frozen Four run ended on April 5, 2018, when Romeo made 26 saves in a 2-1 semifinal loss to Minnesota Duluth. He matched that performance in the classroom: the NCAA gave him its Elite 90 Award for carrying the highest grade point average of any player at that Frozen Four. That summer the Columbus Blue Jackets invited him to their development camp, and he returned to Columbus for his senior season, when the Buckeyes won the Big Ten regular season title. He graduated in the spring of 2019 with a finance degree, a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and three-time Ohio State Scholar-Athlete.

Romeo turned professional that August, signing with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. "I couldn't be more excited to start my professional career in Cincinnati," he said at the time. "This program has such a prestigious reputation, and it is an honor to get to put on the Cyclones jersey." Cyclones coach Matt Thomas called him a goaltender with "an excellent collegiate career highlighted by a run to the Frozen Four with Ohio State" (Cincinnati Cyclones). Over two pro seasons, Romeo played 30 games across seven ECHL teams: Cincinnati, Florida, Adirondack, Norfolk, Indianapolis, South Carolina and Kansas City. The Kansas City Mavericks traded him to the South Carolina Stingrays in March 2021.

Romeo later moved into business in Chicago. A celebration of his life was held November 9, 2026, at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Cary (WCPO).

Romeo was an organ donor. His heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were given to others after his death, extending a career spent making saves into one final one, off the ice.