COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE:  Western Michigan University had the upper hand very early on, and didn’t seem to relinquish it, in the NCAA Hockey Championship Game Saturday night, April 12th, in St. Louis, MO.  Only two minutes into the game a Western Michigan shot from back by the blue line was deflected in by Wyatt Schingoethe, who was in position near the crease.  This escalated the action into a fast skating affair up and down the ice.  Boston University seems to play this way almost constantly, and on Saturday they faced a team that seemed quite capable of keeping up that pace as well.

There was a difference — at any given time the fastest skater from BU seemed to always be the guy with the puck.  Whoever it was seemed much more often than not to skate into traffic with no teammates nearby, and to simply be outgunned by defense.  Not so for offensive rushes by Western Michigan, which seemed to model skaters straight down the ice with at least one teammate in concert and the others shadowing in tow.

But BU did manage to press better than usual, and with thirteen minutes left in the first, a BU shot stopped by goalie Hampton Slukynsky remained loose in between his pads, and Cole Eiserman spied it and banged away on those pads until the puck squeaked out and into the net.  It wasn’t elegant, but it managed to tie it up at one apiece.  With five minutes left in the period, the solid transition play by Western Michigan gave them an odd man rush into the BU zone.  The rebound on a quick shot yielded a scramble at the goal, Western still had a three on two advantage and it paid off quickly as Cole Crusberg-Roseen zipped it in for the 2-1 Bronco lead, which they took into the second period.  Western Michigan managed a slight 9-8 shots advantage in the period.

Five minutes into the second period the superior Western Michigan transition play was on display again; another rebound on a shot and the Broncos still had their two skaters against one, and this time it was Ty Henricks who zipped it in for the 3-1 Western Michigan lead.  A Western Michigan penalty gave BU a power play which almost immediately created a face-off in the Bronco zone.  A BU face-off win, a quick shot, and again the puck was not deemed to have been frozen, while more banging on the goalie’s pads, this time by Shane Lachance, squeezed out another puck that edged just over the line to narrow the score down to a 3-2 deficit for BU, the score going into the third.  The second period shot tally was identical to that in the first.

The pace continued in the third, fast by Western Michigan, frenetic by BU, and seven minutes into the period a loose puck near the Bronco goal created semi-chaos as BU managed a shot that might have been big for them, but Western Michigan rose to the occasion defensively with quick goalie play into position and a defender laying himself out on the ice to stop the puck.  Only moments later the solid Western Michigan transition play again set up an odd man rush into the BU zone, allowing Owen Michaels to blast one on from the face-off circle for a 4-2 Bronco lead.

And it seemed as though that one drained some of the energy from the BU guys, while Western Michigan, on the other hand, seemed further energized by the blood they thought they could smell.  BU sort of hung on but with four minutes left Iiro Hakkarainen scored (assist by Wyatt Schingoethe) to widen the gap to 5-2, and then with two minutes left, Owen Michaels scored again on an empty net to make it 6-2, giving Western Michigan the 2025 NCAA Hockey Championship.  Shots were surprisingly even in this lopsided third period, 10-10.

Congratulations to the Western Michigan Hockey Broncos on their NCAA Hockey Championship !  This might not have been the team I picked in my (wishful) bracket, but . . . . I have always written that it is great for the sport — every sport — when different teams win the championship, and what could possibly be better than a first time winner ??!!  Western Michigan has done well a number of times in past seasons, but what has happened there in the past four years is a case of fourth-year coach Pat Ferschweiler bringing the program together (here we go, cliche time) as a well-oiled machine playing cohesive hockey (but at least these cliches are very, very accurate).

So . . . . was the outcome of this game an upset in our pool . . . . ?  Three entrants picked Boston University to win it all, compared to only one who picked Western Michigan, so on the basis of the “matchup,” yes.  And let’s see . . . . thirty-nine entrants, and only one picked Western Michigan . . . . ?  I think that might qualify as an upset . . . . Who was that one character who picked Western Michigan ? ? ? ?  Oh — read on !

RESULTS OF THE 2025 COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE POOL

College Hockey Update: Ok, I’m sure we all remember very clearly where we were in this thing at the conclusion of the first two regional rounds that were played — almost NOWHERE ! ! !

So here’s the scoop — a little bit of drama in 2025, as we had last year, when Julie Schreader came from her position of tied for ninth after the first two rounds, to win it — a first-time winner.  This year Western Michigan is a first-time winner, and we have another first-time winner of our pool.  This year our winner came from even deeper in the field, tied for fifteenth place with five correct picks out of twelve, to win the pool.  Have to say it is great to see a first-time winner.

This is a guy I met back in December of 2010 when Greg Schreader had a soon-to-expire free companion flight ticket, and he took me to see a Minnesota vs UMD hockey game along with a couple of guys he had been roommates with at St. Cloud State University.  This ended up being the weekend they had a light dusting of snow there and the Metrodome collapsed under the extreme duress of having an inch and a half of snow on it.  Sheeesh.  You’d think they could build for just a bit worse conditions, wouldn’t you ?  Everyone was running around saying, “Snow, it’s snowing!  We never see snow!”

Anyway, I digress but a bit here.  This year’s winner is a very nice guy, had the brains not to get a beer at Stub and Herb’s after that 2010 game when he saw snow falling, and was a star hockey player at St. Cloud State University, Mark Reichel.  Mark managed to win with no tie-breaker involved, getting seven out of fifteen correct picks, plus the bonus two points for picking the correct winner, Western Michigan University (and was the only one of the thirty-nine to pick them), for a total of nine points.  He was followed by the quintet of Bruce Carlisle, Mike Erdman, Marc Rarden, Joel Smith, and Chuck Speare who each had eight correct picks (actually one more correct pick than Mark had, but none of them had the two bonus points for picking the correct winner of the tournament, so Mark leap-frogged them).

Mark, your sweatshirt was ordered last week and should be here within a couple of days.  It just might be a bit big on you, as I had to order it before they ran out, so I bought it to be big enough to fit just about anyone. Now I have quite a number of these sweatshirts from years past to get printed and to send out . . . .

Final College Hockey Update Pool Standings

(Note — if you think I miscounted your score, notify me immediately — I saved all the entries.)

 . . . . . Winner, Mark Reichel, 7 correct picks, 9 total points

For everyone else, correct picks = total points; no one else picked the winner.

8: Carlisle, Erdman, Rarden, Smith, Speare

7: KMattson, DShymanski, TShymanski, Slaughter

6:  Fairbrother, Kramer, DMattson, Miller, Pastor, PReichel, Shepard

5: Cattermole, Huberty, Raluca, JSchreader, MShymanski

4: Hollywood, Fong, PMattson, McLean, Muscarella, EOlson, Peterson, Roth, GgSchreader, GnSchreader, Shimshock, Sweeney

3: Cook, Holte, MOlson, DRamsey, KRamsey

FINAL TEAM RANKINGS/FINAL POLL, APRIL 14, 2025

Congratulations to the Western Michigan University Broncos Hockey Team and to Mark Reichel on their wins, and on reminding all of us that good college hockey is played everywhere.  Seemingly very much so in the NCHC right now, and recently.

Thanks to our co-publisher, Jim Slaughter, for making this possible by putting this blogsite online. Hopefully, I’ll provide actual in-season coverage next year.

So, that’s all for now. STAY TUNED, and go Terriers, go College Hockey!

— Tom