COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE:  Western Michigan controlled the tempo through most of the first semi-final game of the 2025 Frozen Four on Thursday, April 10th, in St. Louis.  Denver on the other hand displayed the calm, patient play that had taken them to this point of the NCAA Tournament.  The two teams skate to a scoreless deadlock in the first, with Western Michigan out-shooting Denver 12-3 in the period.  Both teams played to clog up the middle, and we all know Denver, the highest-scoring team in the country, could turn on the jets at any time, and one could wonder when they’d do it.

Western Michigan really exploded in the second, out-shooting Denver 20-5, and even with Matt Davis in the crease, Denver eventually gave way to the pressure.  A Denver holding penalty gave Western Michigan a one-skate advantage, and a minute into it, Brian Kramer converted on the opportunity to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead with fourteen minutes left in the period.  With five minutes left in the second Owen Michaels scored to put Western Michigan up 2-0, the lead they took into the third period.  Denver heard the alarms and put the clampers on Western Michigan in the third, holding them to just four shots.  Aidan Thompson scored and livened up the Denver bench with thirteen minutes left in the period to narrow the game to 2-1.  And with only three minutes left, Jared Wright scored to tie it up at two apiece, the score at the end of regulation; Denver evened the game up on just nine third period shots.

Western Michigan out-paced Denver ten shots to five in the first OT period but both teams went scoreless, sending them to the second OT.  And very, very early in the OT2 a Western Michigan Rush into the right side of the Denver zone yielded a quick pass to the middle where a very opportunistic Owen Michaels took it and zinged in a shot over the right shoulder of Denver goalie Matt Davis, giving the Broncos the 3-2 win, and sending them to Saturday night’s championship game against the winner of the following game between Boston University and Pennsylvania State University.

So . . . . was this game an upset in our pool ? Depends how you look at it. On one hand, five entrants picked Western Michigan University to win this game, compared to no only three having picked the University of Denver to win it, so in terms of this matchup, I suppose it was not an upset.  However, eighteen had picked Boston College to win this game, and thirteen had picked the University of Minnesota to win it.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned, and go Terriers !

— Tom