ST. LOUIS – Picked to finish sixth in the 2024-25 NCHC Preseason Media Poll, Western Michigan completed a historic season of firsts and a trophy trifecta on Saturday night. The top-seeded Broncos rolled to a 6-2 win over No. 2 seed Boston University in the 2025 NCAA National Championship Game at Enterprise Center to capture the program’s first NCAA men’s hockey National Championship.
 
After claiming its first ever regular-season conference crown in the Penrose Cup, first NCHC Frozen Faceoff title, and earning a spot in its first Frozen Four this season, Western Michigan collected its third trophy of the 2024-25 campaign by making history and becoming kings of college hockey. To top it off, the Broncos finished with a school-record 34 wins, going 34-7-1 on the year, including a 10-game win streak to finish the season.
 
The National Championship also marked the second straight year a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) team has won the NCAA title after Denver did so in 2024. The Pioneers were dethroned this year by the Broncos in an all-NCHC Frozen Four double overtime thriller on Thursday in St. Louis. An NCHC team has now won the National Championship in seven of the last nine NCAA Tournaments, with four different NCHC teams winning a title.
 
WMU sophomore forward Owen Michaels was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2025 Frozen Four after a four-goal weekend, including two goals in Saturday’s championship game. Coming into the Frozen Four, Michaels was on a 14-game goal drought, but put together back-to-back multi-goal games for the first time in his career. He finished the season with 18 goals, second on the team, after only two tallies as a freshman last year.
 
Joining Michaels on the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team were captain and forward Tim Washe, freshman defenseman Joona Väisänen and freshman goaltender Hampton Slukynsky, who allowed only six goals in four NCAA Tournament games. Denver sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
Slukynsky finished with 24 saves in the win, including 10 in the third period as the Broncos pulled away for good. He is the first freshman goaltender to backstop a team to the national title since 2009. WMU finished with a 28-26 edge in shots on goal in the victory.
 
Western Michigan never trailed in the championship game (or in the Frozen Four), grabbing an early lead only 1:38 into the contest. Freshman forward Iiro Hakkarainen gathered the puck down low, skated up towards the blue line, spun and fired a shot. Senior forward Wyatt Schingoethe skated across the crease and deflected Hakkarainen’s shot perfectly into the net for his fifth goal of the year.
 
BU answered six minutes later on a scramble play. Slukynsky tried to cover the puck but missed, with the puck eventually landing on his leg pad and rolling into the net to tie the game. Cole Eiserman was credited with the goal.
 
WMU failed to convert on its first power play chance of the game midway through the first period, but regained the lead soon after. NCHC Forward of the Year Alex Bump fired a shot that went wide of the cage, but a failed Terrier clearance came right to sophomore blueliner Cole Crusberg-Roseen, who ripped a shot from the right circle into the net to make it a 2-1 game. It was only his third goal of the season.
 
Freshman Ty Henricks doubled the WMU lead 5:18 into the second period when he knocked in a rebound. Grad student Cam Knuble drove the net and put a shot on goal that was saved by BU’s Mikhail Yegorov, but Henricks cleaned up for his eighth tally of the year.
 
The Terriers pulled one back on a power play midway through the second stanza when Shane Lachance jabbed home a puck between Slukynsky’s legs. WMU’s freshman netminder appeared to have it covered, but no whistle was blown and after review, the goal stood, making it a one-goal game again.
 
With the Broncos up, 3-2, Slukynsky made a big save on Eiserman early in the third period to deny a tie game. Shortly after, Michaels restored the two-goal lead with his first of the night. The MOP sniped a shot from the right circle that beat Yegorov on an odd-man rush. That made it 4-2 7:16 into the final frame.
 
Hakkarainen then put the game out of reach with his second point of the night as the Broncos’ third line struck again. With less than four minutes left in the game, Schingoethe returned the favor, setting up the freshman Finn with a nifty backhand pass from behind the net that Hakkarainen buried with Yegorov looking the other way.
 
Michaels officially sealed the victory and championship with an empty-net goal for his second of the night and fourth of the Frozen Four. He dove into a dogpile on the WMU bench, as the celebration began.
 
Western Michigan becomes the fourth team to win the NCAA men’s hockey National Championship in their Frozen Four debut and the first since Lake Superior State in 1988. The Broncos join Denver (2017, 2022, 2024), Minnesota Duluth (2018, 2019) and North Dakota (2016) as National Champions in the NCHC.
 
Postgame Notes

• An NCHC team has now won the National Championship in 7 of last 9 NCAA Tournaments. This is the second straight year an NCHC team won the title (Denver in 2024) while WMU is the fourth different NCHC team to capture the crown (also Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota). DU has three, UMD has two and UND/WMU have one each.
• NCHC teams finished 4-0 vs. Hockey East teams in the 2025 NCAA Tournament with WMU going 2-0 (UMass, BU) and Denver going 2-0 (Providence, Boston College). NCHC teams also improved to 3-1 vs. Hockey East teams in National Championship Games:
  • 2019 – Minnesota Duluth defeated UMass, 3-0
  • 2021 – UMass defeated St. Cloud State, 5-0
  • 2024 – Denver defeated Boston College, 2-0
  • 2025 – Western Michigan defeated Boston University, 6-2
• Outside of the first tournament, Western Michigan becomes the fourth team to win the NCAA men’s hockey National Championship in its Frozen Four debut and the first since Lake Superior State in 1988. The others were Denver in 1958 and Cornell in 1967.
• Hampton Slukynsky is the first freshman goalie to win the National Championship since Boston University’s Kieran Millan in 2009.
• Western Michigan’s 34 wins this season are a school record, tie an NCHC record and are the most in the country. They are the most wins by an NCHC team since North Dakota won 34 games en route to the 2016 national championship. Those are the only times an NCHC team has won 34 games in a year.

Frozen Four All-Tournament Team
G: Hampton Slukynsky, Western Michigan
D: Zeev Buium, Denver
D: Joona Väisänen, Western Michigan
F: Cole Eiserman, Boston University
F: Owen Michaels, Western Michigan (MOP)      
F: Tim Washe, Western Michigan