The 2025 Frozen Four brought a new winner to NCAA Division I hockey in the Western Michigan Broncos. They beat Denver in the semi-final game, 3-2, in double overtime. Then, they faced off against Boston College in the championship game and won dominantly, 6-2, in the national championship game.
As the story has been all season, Western Michigan dominated. They recorded the most wins in all of college hockey with 34 wins in the season.
This was also a year of firsts for WMU: they won the Penrose Cup for the best regular season team in the NCHC, they won their first Frozen Faceoff and took home the NCHC tournament trophy, they made their first appearance in the Frozen Four and won their first national championship in program history.
The semi-final game of Denver versus Western Michigan was one with high anxiety and angst as this was their fourth time facing each other this season and their second time meeting in the last month.
It was a quiet first period for both teams, but WMU had control of the game, dominating in the shot department and dictating the pace of play for the majority of the first period.
WMU got on the board early in the middle frame at 6:16, a goal off the faceoff from Brian Kramer, who ripped it past senior goaltender Matt Davis’s glove to give WMU the 1-0 lead.
WMU continued the dominance with another goal at 14:32, a Denver defensive zone turnover gave the puck to Owen Michaels, who didn’t waste any time to snipe Davis over the shoulder to extend the WMU lead to 2-0.
After the middle period, a lot of shock and confusion showed from the Denver faithful, with a flat and lifeless performance in the first two periods. Denver was getting outshot, 32-8, a lopsided game that Denver hasn’t seen all season long.
“No, we just knew we had to put our foot on the gas. We knew they would push from the third. They’re a hell of a team. We were expecting it; we were ready for it,” Michaels explained on any worry giving away the two-goal lead to Denver.
But, Denver showed their experience in the third period, with Denver answering back on junior forward Aidan Thompson‘s goal at 6:49. A loose puck in the slot was pounded home by Thompson to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Down by a goal, the Crimson and Gold continued the push, and in the final minutes of the third at 17:21, a net-front scramble ensued in front of WMU netminder Hampton Slukynsky, and junior forward Jared Wright poked the puck that was loose in Slukynsky’s pads to even the score at 2-2.
Deja vu set in for both teams as they went to overtime for the third time this season. The last time out in the Frozen Faceoff championship game, WMU’s Alex Bump scored in the first few minutes to win the NCHC.
“Going into overtime, we were just talking about the belief, we’re not going to lack that. We haven’t all year, and that’s not going to change,” Micahels mentioned about heading into the overtime period.
The same happened in the Frozen Four, and 26 seconds into the second overtime period, Owen Michaels took advantage of a bad Denver bounce and walked in and sniped Davis over the glove to send WMU to the national championship game.
A packed barn full of WMU fans erupted into a frenzy as they punched their ticket to the final dance for their first time.
The second semi-final game of the evening was another tightly contested game against a new face in the Penn State Nittany Lions and the blue blood of Boston University.
It was another quiet first period in this game, and the scoreboard was filled with zeros after one period of tight checking play.
But, the middle period saw fireworks with two BU goals. Jack Hughes got on the board within the first minute of the period to give BU the lead.
Just past the midway point of the period at 10:44, Cole Hutson made a phenomenal cross-ice pass on a two-on-one to Cole Eiserman, who put it past PSU goaltender Arsenii Sergev. Eiserman, the 2024 New York Islanders first-round pick, extended the BU lead to 2-0.
The third period brought more intensity, and early in the frame at 2:15, PSU’s Nicholas DeGraves scored. A net-front battle from a blocked shot allowed DeGraves to quickly fire the loose puck past a sprawling Mikhail Yegorov to cut the PSU deficit to 2-1.
Penn State continued the fight through the final period, and with a minute to go, BU put a bow on the game with a Jack Harvey empty-net goal to secure BU’s spot in the national championship game.
So the final dance was set: the Western Michigan Broncos against the Boston University Terriers.
WMU’s first appearance brought anticipation with the nearly 17,000 fans in attendance for the championship game, while BU was making its 12th appearance in the Frozen Four championship game and the first since 2015.
Unlike the two semi-final games, WMU got started early with a goal at 1:38; the first registered shot for WMU was a net-front battle won by Wyatt Schingoethe, which gave WMU the 1-0 lead.
Nearly six minutes later, at 7:12, BU answered back with a goal from Eiserman, his 25th of the season, to tie it up at 1-1.
With roughly five minutes left in the 1st period, WMU regained the lead with a goal from Cole Crusberg-Roseen, who wired a shot through a screen to beat Yegorov to gvie WMU a 2-1 lead.
Early in the middle period, WMU extended the lead with a goal from Ty Henricks; a two-on-one rush goal for the Broncos further extended their lead to 3-1.
The pattern of a back-and-forth game was seen all weekend long, and that continued in the championship game with BU cutting the deficit to one at 3-2, thanks to a powerplay goal scored by BU captain Shane Lacahance.
The final period was headed to be one for the record books with a one-goal lead for the first-timers in the Broncos, but they showed their dominance early.
At 7:16, the eventual Frozen Four’s Most Outstanding Player, Owen Michaels, scored the all-important fourth goal on another odd-man rush for the Broncos. A far side snipe for his fourth goal in two games beat Yegorov to extend the Broncos lead to 4-2.
“It was definitely a big moment in the game. Kind of tilt the ice back in our way, in our favor. Like I said earlier, it’s not about me one bit. It’s about this group and the Western Michigan Broncos doing something we’ve never done. Each year, it seems like the bar keeps getting raised. We took a lot of pride this year in doing our part, and we sure did,” Michaels explained on his big weekend.
From that point on, WMU held onto the game and didn’t allow BU to have any strong scoring chances. They scored two more goals, including an empty-netter by Micahels to pot his second of the night. The final score ended 6-2.
The final buzzer went off, and history was made for the Western Michigan Broncos, who won their first national championship in program history.
They joined a list of four other teams to win their first national championship in their first Frozen Four appearance. Denver in 1958, Michigan in 1948, Northern Michigan in 1991 and Lake Superior State in 1988.
