ST. LOUIS — Owen Michaels didn’t make much of an offensive splash his freshman year at Western Michigan, scoring two goals and logging five assists in 38 games.
But his coach Pat Ferschweiler had no doubt that the 2025 NCAA tournament’s most outstanding player had the makings of a great offensive right winger.
“His quality of play was higher than his points,” said Ferschweiler.
Potential is one thing. Working to get there takes effort.
“I definitely went into the summer trying to take that next step,” Michaels said after Thursday’s semifinal. “And I had a big summer in the gym and on the ice.”
Michaels’ four goals led scoring for the Frozen Four. Two of them are destined to become legendary at Western Michigan, if they haven’t already achieved that status.
“On the biggest stage, the big players show up and that’s what he did,” said Western Michigan captain Tim Washe. “He came up huge for us this weekend.”
In Thursday’s defeat of Denver, Michaels scored the game winner just 26 seconds into the second overtime as he took a pass in the high slot through traffic and roofed it to advance the Broncos to Saturday’s championship game. He also scored in the second period to give WMU a 2-0 lead.
Michaels’ first goal in the championship game may have been the backbreaker for Boston University. After a scramble in front of the Western Michigan net, he rushed up ice 2-on-1 with Matteo Constantini. Michaels kept the puck, sending past BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov’s blocker side to give the Broncos a 4-2 lead.
“We’re a calm group, so nothing’s gonna faze us,” said Ferschweiler. “We talk about having to skate out of scrums and that’s exactly what Owen Michaels did. There’s a flurry around the net and a lot of people want to whack the puck out of there. And he skates all the way down the ice and then buries it at the other end.”
Michaels added an empty-net goal to cement the game for the Broncos and jumped on a pile of teammates in front of the Broncos bench to celebrate.
“I’m not too sure what I was screaming, but that was just a ton of emotions and that goal was not about me one bit,” Michaels said. “It was about this team and this group and doing something.”
Michaels ended his sophomore season with 18 goals and 18 assists.
“We knew he had offense in him, but we also know he’s a warrior,” Ferschweiler said.
“And the funny thing about warriors is they always show up at the biggest moments. He showed up at the biggest moment and there was no doubt in our mind.”
