2025 Frozen Four: Top standouts as Western Michigan wins first championship

Tyler Kuehl
Tyler Kuehl(TJKu29)
Apr 12, 2025, 23:33 EDT
2025 Frozen Four: Top standouts as Western Michigan wins first championship
Credit: © Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

From irrelevance to excellence.

In just a few short years, the Western Michigan Broncos went from a team meddling in the NCHC to becoming the best team in college hockey. On Saturday, in front of a partisan WMU crowd in St. Louis, the Broncos beat the Boston University Terriers, 6-2, to claim the program’s first-ever NCAA national championship.

While longtime fans of the Bronco hockey program might feel like they’re dreaming, Western Michigan head coach Pat Ferschweiler admitted this has been the end goal all along.

“I can believe it,” Ferschweiler said to ESPN’s Quint Kessenich after the game. “We’ve believed in ourselves all year long. We came out here and executed at a high level. … We played Bronco hockey from start to finish.”

Ferschweiler, who captained the team during his playing days in the early ’90s, admitted that bringing home a championship to Kalamazoo is something special.

“It means everything. It means our program’s on the map, and we’re moving forward to the future.”

Prior to Saturday night, the only national championships the school had ever won were men’s cross country titles in 1964 and 1965.

The Broncos brought the same level of intensity and aggressiveness that made them the best team in the NCHC to St. Louis, and the Terriers struggled in stretches to match their energy. Western Michigan got in front early, and were up by two at the halfway mark of the contest. Up by one heading into the third, Owen Michaels continued to have the tournament of his life, scoring his third goal of the weekend to give his team some insurance.

A flukey goal from Iiro Hakkaraien and an empty-netter from Michaels sealed the victory.

Cole Crusberg-Roseen and New York Rangers draft pick Ty Henricks also scored for Western Michigan in the win.

Saturday’s win marked the first time a team from the state of Michigan won the national title since Michigan State won in 2007, the last time the Frozen Four was held in St. Louis.

Michaels was named tournament MVP with four goals on the weekend. The sophomore stated that this team knew it was special even before the season started.

“All the way back in summer,” Michaels told ESPN’s Colby Cohen. “We were such a close group from day one, and we just kept building. Now, we reached the mountain top.”

Los Angeles Kings prospect Hampton Slukynsky was named the tournament’s best goaltender. The Bronco freshman stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced on Saturday, turning away 44 of the 48 shots he faced at the Frozen Four. He allowed just six goals in the four games of the tournament.

Broncos captain Tim Washe, along with teammate and Pittsburgh Penguins draft Joona Vaisanen, were also named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Broncos were one of the best teams in college hockey all season. With impressive wins early on, WMU was hanging near the top of the polls throughout most of 2024-25, going on to clinch the team’s first-ever regular-season championship before winning the NCHC title for the first time. Then, they punched their ticket to the Men’s Frozen Four for the first time after beating Minnesota State and Massachusetts in the Fargo Regional.

Western Michigan advanced to the championship game thanks to a chaotic double-overtime win over the defending national champions, Denver, in the semifinals on Saturday.

Western Michigan finishes the year with a program-record 34 wins, tying the number of victories Quinnipiac had when they won it all two years ago. They were just the fourth team (since the inaugural national tournament in 1948) to win the national championship in their first trip to the Frozen Four.

Here were the players who stood out in Saturday’s final:

Western Michigan

Wyatt Schingoethe, RW (Toronto Maple Leafs): In big games, you need all hands on deck, and sometimes the most unlikely names will become heroes. Wyatt Schingoethe fit that description to a T. Despite coming to the Broncos as an NHL draft pick, it had been hard for him to sometimes crack the lineup. Yet, his persistence made him an important player down the stretch in his senior season, and he was rewarded on Saturday night.

Schingoethe tipped in the first goal of the game just over a minute into the contest, capitalizing on the jump the Broncos brought to the game. It was his fifth goal of the season and just the sixth of his career. The Algonquin, Illinois native ended the game with a goal and an assist.

Iiro Hakkarainen, LW: The goal Schingoethe assisted on was the true dagger for BU. Late in the third period, the Leafs’ draft pick made a nice play to feed Hakkarainen, who was able to sneak it by Terrier netminder and New Jersey Devils prospect Mikhail Yegorov to put Western Michigan up by three.

The goal might not have been a pretty one, but it extenuated the ability the Finnish winger has to find open space and use his speed and tenacity to create scoring chances for himself. Hakkaraien, who also assisted on Schingoethe’s goal, has been clutch throughout the year for WMU, ending his rookie campaign tied for fifth on the team with 13 goals.

Boston University

Cole Eiserman, LW (New York Islanders): It was certainly not the end Eiserman and the Terriers wanted, but it certainly didn’t take away from the performance the Islanders prospect had in the tournament. When it looked like Western Michigan was going to run away with the game early, Eiserman’s willingness to crash the net led to him leveling the score at one.

It was Eiserman’s second goal of the Frozen Four and fourth of the tournament. The freshman was the only Terrier named to the All-Tournament Team.

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