Owen Michaels scored two third-period goals Saturday night and Western Michigan won the first national championship of any kind for its school in 60 years with a 6-2 decision over Boston University in the Frozen Four final in St. Louis.
Michaels gave the Broncos (34-7-1) a 4-2 advantage at 7:16, followed by Iiro Hakkarainen’s marker at 16:02 when he flipped a wrister off the glove of Terriers goalie Mikhail Yegorov and into the net when Yegorov batted the puck behind him.
BU (24-14-2) pulled Yegorov for a sixth attacker in a desperate attempt to make up the deficit. But Michaels, who scored two goals in Thursday’s 3-2 double-overtime win over 2024 champion Denver, sealed the outcome by potting an empty-netter at 17:52. Michaels then skated back to his bench and jumped into the arms of his teammates.
“We played Bronco hockey tonight,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “We executed and we finished. This puts our program on the map, no question about it.”
Hampton Slukynsky stopped 24 of 26 shots for Western Michigan, while Yegorov made 22 saves for the Terriers. The five-time champions were denied their first national title since 2009.
“It’s hard to get here,” Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo said. “And clearly we know it’s very hard to win this last game. They got a couple of more breaks and finished a couple of more plays than we did.”
Going for its first national championship in hockey, Western Michigan was the only top seed to make it out of its regional. It also enjoyed a huge crowd advantage as plenty of its fans made the 417-mile drive southwest from Kalamazoo.
They got to cheer early as Wyatt Schingoethe initiated scoring just 98 seconds into the game via Hakkarainen and captain Tim Washe.
BU equalized at 7:12 as Cole Eiserman — who scored the eventual winning marker Thursday night in a 3-1 semifinal victory over Penn State — beat Slukynsky with Devin Kaplan and Kamil Bednarik assisting.
But the Broncos took a 2-1 lead to the first intermission when Cole Crusberg-Roseen tallied at 15:01, then made it a two-goal advantage on Ty Henricks’ marker 5:18 into the second period.
The Terriers responded with a power-play goal at the 10:42 mark as Shane Lachance camped in front of Slukynsky, poked twice at a rebound in the crease and managed to push it into the net.
–Field Level Media
