Western Michigan tops Boston University, earns 1st NCAA championship

ST. LOUIS -- The Western Michigan Broncos would not be denied.

It didn’t matter that Boston University had all the experience with 25 NCAA Frozen Four appearances and 12 championship games. The Broncos were making their first-ever trip to the Frozen Four and were not intimidated in the least.

Sophomore Owen Michaels scored twice, and Wyatt Schingoethe and Iiro Hakkarainen each had a goal and an assist, and the Broncos won their first-ever championship, defeating the Terriers 6-2 in the 2025 Frozen Four championship game at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Western Michigan (34-7-1) ended its season with 10 straight wins, including knocking off defending champion Denver University, 3-2 in double overtime on a goal scored by Michaels.

The Broncos knew they were up against a storied program in Boston University, one that is rich in history and tradition at this level. They were determined coming into this tournament to begin the process of carving out a niche of their own.

“One, I want to congratulate Boston University on a tremendous season and a hard-fought contest,” Broncos coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “And two, I want to say how proud I am of this team. They stuck together, they believed in themselves from start to finish. Not only the season but this game. They stayed focused on each individual game, one by one all season and the leadership we have up here, phenomenal. They cared about each other all year and I’m proud of them.

“It’s a great last minute when you’re up 6-2. It’s probably a different feeling than 3-2. We certainly enjoyed it, our players enjoyed it on the bench. Obviously we got the fourth goal, the fifth goal and we’re trying to calm people down a little bit because there’s some game left. With a minute left, we could feel the championship was ours and we got to hug it out.”

The Terriers, who finished 24-14-2 after making their third straight Frozen Four, were going for the sixth championship in program history and first since 2009.

“Western Michigan played a good hockey game,” Terriers coach Jay Pandolfo said. “They're a good team. I thought overall we played hard. We competed today. They got a couple more breaks and finished a couple more plays than we did and ended up on the right side of it.

“It's tough to put into words how this feels, especially for our players, especially our senior class that's going to be moving on and other guys that may move on as well. But I'm really proud of this group, starting with these two guys up here, Devin Kaplan and Quinn Hutson, our leadership group that there's no way we get to this point without them and how well they've represented the program the last three years. It's hard to get here. And clearly we know it's very hard to win this last game. But I'm really proud of them, and this is tough to swallow.”

Schingoethe, a senior who was a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs, was in front and tipped home the first goal for Western Michigan to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead at 1:38 of the first period.

Freshman forward Cole Eiserman, the No. 20 pick of the 2024 draft by the New York Islanders, who also scored Thursday in BU's 3-1 semifinal win against Penn State, scored his second goal of the tournament for the Terriers to tie the game 1-1 at 7:12 by jamming away at a loose puck in the crease on Broncos goalie Hampton Slukynsky, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft by the Los Angeles Kings.

Cole Crusberg-Roseen gave the Broncos a 2-1 lead at 15:01 when he stepped into a one-timer from the right circle off a miss by Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alex Bump, a fifth-round pick in 2022.

The Broncos extended their lead to 3-1 at 5:18 of the second period when Ty Henricks, a sixth-round pick in 2023 by the New York Rangers, followed up a shot in the low slot.

New Jersey Devils prospect Shane Lachance, a 2021 sixth-round pick by the Edmonton Oilers, cut the Terriers deficit to 3-2 at 10:42 when he jammed a power-play goal past Slukynsky. The Broncos challenged for goalie interference but the call on the ice was upheld, and WMU lost its time out.

Michaels made it 4-2 at 7:16 off a 2-on-1, snapping a wrister from the inside of the right circle.

“It was definitely a big moment in the game and kind of tilted the ice back our way and back in our favor,” said Michaels, who had four goals in two games at the Frozen Four. “It’s not one bit about me, it’s about this group. The Western Michigan Broncos doing something we’ve never done. Each and every year, the bar seems to be getting raised. We took a lot of pride in doing our part.”

BU's challenge at 11:56 failed when a no-goal call on the ice was confirmed.

“They said it was tied up. So he blew the whistle, I guess,” Pandolfo said. “I haven't seen the replay of it, so I'm not sure exactly what it looked like. Someone said it was on top of [Slukynsky’s] pad and we pushed it in. It's hard to comment when I don't see the replay yet. Just live it looked like the puck was still moving, but it's far away from where I was sitting or standing. So, yeah, the explanation was the whistle blew and it was tied up.”

Hakkarainen tapped in a short side shot off a feed from behind the net to extend Western Michigan’s lead to 5-2 at 16:02, and Michaels scored into the empty net at 17:52 to make it a 6-2 final, leaping into the bench to begin an early celebration.

“I’m not too sure what I was screaming,” Michaels said. “A ton of emotions. That goal was not about me one bit, it was about this team and this group and doing something this program’s never done. I just wanted to be with the guys.”