ST. LOUIS—Owen Michaels didn’t hesitate after watching his shot slide into the open net with more than two minutes left to essentially seal Western Michigan’s first Frozen Four title in its first championship game.
The sophomore forward made a beeline toward the bench and hurtled the boards to jump into a pile of celebrating teammates.
“I’m not sure what I was screaming, but just a ton of emotions,” Michaels said, with a piece of the goal net sticking out from under his national championship hat following a 6-2 victory over Boston University on Saturday night.
“And that goal was not about me one bit,” he added. “It was about this team and this group and doing something this program’s never done. So I just wanted to be with the guys.”
Michaels, who scored twice against BU, separated himself from his teammates over a three-day stretch. He was voted the Frozen Four’s outstanding player after scoring four times, including one 26 seconds into double overtime of a 3-2 victory over defending champion Denver in the semifinals Thursday night.
“O-Mikes, oh man, where to start?” Broncos captain Tim Washe said. “I mean biggest stage, the big players show up, and that’s what he did.”
And the top-seeded Broncos, with what sounded like most of Kalamazoo making the trip to St. Louis, secured their city’s place on the college hockey map in becoming the state’s sixth program to win the title, while doing so in their program’s 52nd year of existence.
“I want to say how proud I am of this team. They stuck together, they believed in themselves, from start to finish,” said Pat Ferschweiler, a former Broncos captain and who has coached the team to NCAA Tournament berths in each of his four seasons.
“The pride I feel in this program and to see it reach new heights and to have this group of special young men, execute at that level and care about each other at that level is so special,” he added.
Iiro Hakkarainen and Wyatt Schingoethe had a goal and assist each, with Ty Henricks and Cole Crusberg-Roseen also scoring. Freshman Hampton Slukynsky stopped 24 shots and top-seeded Western Michigan (34-7-1) closed its winningest season with 10 straight victories.
In defeating the five-time champion Terriers, the Broncos become the fourth program to win the title in its championship game debut, joining Denver in 1958, Cornell (1967) and Lake Superior State (1988). Western Michigan also made it three-for-three for Michigan-based teams winning the tournament when played in St. Louis, after Michigan State won in 2007 and Michigan Tech in 1975.
Cole Eiserman and Shane Lachance scored and Mikhail Yegorov stopped 22 shots for Boston University (24-14-2). The Terriers, seeking their first title since 2009, came up short yet again in making their third consecutive Frozen Four appearance, with their previous two ending with semifinal losses.
“It’s hard to get here. And clearly we know it’s very hard to win this last game,” said coach Jay Pandolfo, a two-time Stanley Cup winner and member of BU’s 1995 championship team. “I’m really proud of them, and this is tough to swallow.”
Though Western Michigan never trailed in the final, the win didn’t come easily. The Terriers appeared to cut the lead to 4-3 with 8:04 remaining when Matt Copponi jammed in a rebound through Slukynsky’s legs. Though replays clearly showed the puck going over the line, the goal was disallowed because the whistle had blown.
Trailing 3-2, BU also had a goal review go against it 3:30 into the third period when replays showed Matt Copponi’s shot was stopped by Hakkarainen outstretched leg.
Michaels scored four minutes later on a two-on-one break after Boston University star freshman Cole Hutson whiffed on a shot in the Broncos end.
“We knew he had offense in him,” Ferschweiler said of Michaels, who scored 18 times this season after managing just two as a freshman. “We also know he’s a warrior. He’s a future captain of this program, no doubt about it. And the funny thing about warriors is they always show up at the biggest moments.”
