Clinched for Kalamazoo: Wild Alumni Bring Western Michigan First NCAA Title
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan University men’s hockey team went into the 2024-25 season coming off likely its best three-year run in program history, with 70 wins and back-to-back-to-back NCAA tournament bids for the first time in program history. In the first of those three years, the program earned its first-ever NCAA tournament win. What followed this season with three Wenatchee Wild alumni on the roster, though, wasn’t just a step to the next level.
It was historic.
Photo Credit: Ashley Huss/Western Michigan University
Bronco men’s hockey earned its first NCAA championship on April 12, and the university’s first NCAA title in any sport since the men’s cross country team ran away with national championships in 1964 and 1965. Wenatchee alumni Garrett Szydlowski, Ethan Wolthers and Ean Somoza all played a role in this year’s championship run, with Szydlowski posting a secondary assist on the eventual championship goal, as Western Michigan routed Boston University in the final, 6-2.
For Szydlowski, the 2024-25 season also meant a return to the ice after a year out of competition – the Brighton, Michigan native had redshirted the previous season, coming to Western Michigan directly from Wenatchee in 2023. Not playing in games meant he was able to get off to a good start in the classroom, but also meant a major adjustment to the routine.
“Obviously, everybody wants to play, and it gets tough,” said Szydlowski. “It was good for me, for my development. Every day, Coach (Pat Ferschweiler), even though you weren’t playing, always made sure that you gave it your all and you were getting better. I hadn’t been in school since I was in high school except for a couple of summer classes, so it was nice to get my feet in the water a bit and take it by learning things through my coaches and my teammates. I thought it was great for my development.”
Somoza started out playing regularly the previous season, but took a hard bite from the injury bug in a November game at Colorado College and saw his season halted after just 10 games. This year, he stepped onto the ice for just two after an offseason wrist surgery, but the latter of those appearances came in the NCAA tournament against UMass.
“It was more than just physical,” said Somoza. “It was a big mental battle too – it was my second wrist surgery in under two years. I had one going into my second year in Wenatchee, and that surgery had never fully healed. It was a long process – it was about a seven-month recovery, and I was in a cast for about three months. I came out stronger, but it was a really hard mental battle. Your whole way of life changes – I couldn’t do normal things anymore. I couldn’t brush my teeth with my right hand, and driving – you don’t know how significant it is until it’s gone. I’m so happy that I got the procedure done and everything went so well. My wrist feels better than 100 percent.”
Photo Credit: Ashley Huss/Western Michigan University
While the Broncos could see big things on the horizon, early predictions were for a middle-of-the-road finish in the always-powerful National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The conference’s preseason media poll had WMU pegged to finish sixth out of nine teams in the conference, with only one of the 30 voters predicting a first-place finish.
However, the Broncos stacked up a seven-game unbeaten streak to start November, including a November 22 game that saw two Wild alumni highlight their seasons in a 5-2 win at Minnesota-Duluth. Szydlowski scored his first NCAA goal to put Western Michigan ahead with a backhander early in the second period. Wolthers scored two, including the eventual game-winner later in the period.
“We all knew we would be good,” said Szydlowski. “It didn’t take long for all of us to connect and hit the ground running. We knew we were going to do something pretty special pretty early on. Even before we started playing games, guys always wanted to hang out with each other, whether it was going out and shooting hoops or kicking it at the house. Whatever it was, you could tell there was a different dynamic. At the rink, everybody loves pushing each other to the max, and you could tell even before the year that we were going to have a special group.”
Another seven-game run followed out of the New Year’s holiday, and the Broncos wrapped up the NCHC’s Penrose Cup regular-season title February 28 on home ice, with a 6-4 win over North Dakota.
“We hoisted the Cup and celebrated in the locker room,” said Wolthers. “We thought from there that we might be one of the hottest teams in the league and we might have a chance. That was the moment when I noticed.”
After an overtime loss against UND the following night, the Broncos never lost again. Three weeks later, Western Michigan earned its first conference title since 2012 with a double-overtime win against defending national champion Denver.
That Frozen Faceoff title – and the Broncos’ first regular-season conference crown since a 1975 CCHA Division II title – earned the Broncos the top overall seed in the Fargo Regional tournament the following week. As expected, the Lawson Lunatics that supported the team all season long at home showed up in force to take their show on the road.
“It was second-to-none. It was absolutely unbelievable,” said Somoza. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I couldn’t believe how loud the crowd was, and how well they traveled. It was seriously like a home game, and that gives us so much energy and juice, just to see how well our fans travel and how much they care about this, and how much it means to them and this city. You’re playing for something bigger, so it’s really important. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen – I couldn’t have dreamed of anything like that.”
For Wolthers, the season was already over, with his last appearance coming January 17 in the midst of that latter seven-game winning streak. However, even without stepping into the lineup on a nightly basis during the season, he was able to find an important role as part of the team.
“I took pride in what I was able to provide the team,” said Wolthers. “Being an older guy, it definitely wasn’t the best thing to be sitting out, but for me to provide for the younger guys that I was helping out, boosting them every day, making them better, preparing them for the games – anything that I could have done to help them leading up to the games was everything I was going to do.”
The first game of the tournament required yet another double-overtime survival – this time, it was Grant Slukynsky sending the Broncos through with a 2-1 win over Minnesota-Duluth. The regional final required only a 60-minute performance, but UMass gave them all they had in a 2-1 decision.
The Broncos got back to Kalamazoo and got one week’s worth of class and practices in before heading for the Frozen Four in St. Louis. Not surprisingly, another instant classic awaited when Denver squared off with Western Michigan in the national semifinal. The Broncos built a 2-0 lead in the second period, but saw the Pioneers erase it with just 2:39 to play, sending another game to overtime. Owen Michaels made the fifth period a short one, though, scoring just 26 seconds into double-overtime to put the Broncos into their first national final.
“It was exactly how the other one (against Denver) had ended,” said Szydlowski. “The whole game, we were pretty commanding offensively and we were in control of it. There was no doubt we were winning that game. The score didn’t reflect it, but it’s hard to win – Denver’s a very good team too. We knew it was going to be a dogfight, and we ended up coming out on top.”
Western Michigan built a 2-1 lead against Boston University in the final, and then Szydlowski found himself involved on the game’s crucial goal, batting the puck down the bench wall before tapping a pass into the offensive zone to Cam Knuble. His point-blank shot rebounded back to Ty Henricks, who fired the rebound past Mikhail Yegorov to give Szydlowski an assist and the Broncos their third goal of the night.
Photo Credit: Connor Hamilton/Imagn Images
“It’s a play that we talk about all the time,” said Szydlowski. “It’s just moving the puck forward and winning battles. I won a puck battle along the wall, and ‘Knubs’ came over and made a great play taking it to the net, and Henricks was able to bury it. It’s just a play that we do all the time.”
BU got back within a goal going to the third period, but Owen Michaels helped to salt the game away with two goals in the final 20 minutes.
“It was just one game at a time,” said Wolthers. “Every game, we prepared the exact same way. Throughout the week leading up to the game, there were never any doubts or negative thoughts about losing a game. It was all positive, stick to the game plan, and we’ll achieve our goal at the end, and that’s what we did.”
For many of the Broncos, including the three Wild alumni, the hours and days after the national championship were a blur. The 2024-25 season was an unprecedented one for Western Michigan – its 34 wins marked a new record for the program, ending the season on a 10-game winning streak. The last six wins all came against ranked opponents, as WMU became the seventh NCAA champion for the NCHC in nine chances.
For Szydlowski, the win meant a little more – the native Michigander grew up attending games at Lawson Arena with his dad Allen, who had played quarterback for the Broncos’ football team in the 1980s.
“All of it was so crazy. You try to take it all in, but I don’t even remember celebrating on the ice. It was nuts,” said Szydlowski. “You just can’t believe that you’re staring up at the score-clock and you see ‘Western Michigan: National Champions.’ As a kid, you dream about doing that, but once it happens, you’re just in awe. My dad had his MAC championship ring on, and he was laughing, ‘This is way cooler than the ring I’ve got.’ He was so proud of me and my teammates, and he said, ‘This is awesome. You have no idea how much this means to me, your mom, the whole Western community.'”
For all three, the on-ice success has been matched by success in the classroom – all three earned NCHC Distinguished Scholar awards this season. Wolthers’s award was his third, while Somoza and Szydlowski each earned their second.
“School’s been great,” said Somoza. “It took me a couple of tries, but I declared my major in sales and marketing. School went really well – I was fortunate enough to have a couple of teammates in my classes, and I was able to take a lot away from it.”
Photo credit: Rich Gagnon
