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Built to last: Western Michigan’s run isn’t slowing down, but March still runs through Denver

Five straight NCAA tournaments and a 2025 national title say Western Michigan’s run is built to last; here’s what a deep March run would take.

Shaun
4–6 minutes
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Not long ago, Western Michigan was the NCHC member still waiting on its breakthrough. The Broncos had never reached a Frozen Four, and when they joined the league for its first season in 2013-14, they had never won an NCAA tournament game.

That history feels a long way off now. Western Michigan is the 2025 national champion, has been to five straight NCAA tournaments, and opens the 2026-27 season looking like a team that has turned a run into a program. Mitten Hockey’s take: this isn’t a peak that’s about to fade. The harder question is what it would take to get back to the Frozen Four, and the answer has a name: Denver.

How the run was built

The streak began in 2022, when Western Michigan made the NCAA tournament and won its first postseason tournament game, according to the NCHC. Every spring since has ended in the national tournament.

The top came in 2024-25. The Broncos won a school-record 34 games, survived two one-goal games in their regional, beat defending champion Denver in double overtime in the national semifinals, and beat Boston University 6-2 in St. Louis for the program’s first national title. It was also Western Michigan’s first national championship in any team sport.

The hangover never came. Western Michigan went 27-11-1 last season and 16-7-1 in the NCHC, then beat Minnesota State 3-1 in the Loveland Regional on March 27. Two nights later, Denver ended the season with a 6-2 win in the regional final, and the Pioneers went on to win the national title, beating Wisconsin 2-1 in the final.

Even with that finish, the school notes the Broncos ended 2025-26 sixth in both national polls, have been ranked in the top 10 every week since November 2024, and have the third-most Division I wins of any program over the last five years. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a standard.

Why it looks built to last

The best evidence is how this season has started. Western Michigan is 4-1-0 through five games, with 23 goals scored and five allowed, according to the team’s official statistics. That’s 4.6 goals a game for and 1.0 against.

The shot totals tell the same story. The Broncos are averaging 39.8 shots a game and allowing 22.6. They’ve scored on 6 of 24 power plays (25.0%) and allowed one power-play goal on 19 opponent chances, a penalty kill of about 94.7%.

Look at who is doing it, too. The scoring is spread across three players with seven points each:

  • William Whitelaw: 3 goals, 4 assists
  • Adam Benák: 2 goals, 5 assists
  • Joona Väisänen: 2 goals, 5 assists

Benák is a freshman and Väisänen is a junior defenseman, and with Quentin Miller they swept the NCHC’s three weekly awards after opening weekend. Miller, a sophomore in his first season with the program, is 4-1-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average, a .956 save percentage, and two shutouts. A rookie forward, a defenseman driving offense, and a young goalie putting up those numbers is how a program refreshes itself instead of starting over.

The one loss came at No. 1 Michigan on Oct. 23, a 3-2 game decided with a tenth of a second left in regulation. Western Michigan outshot the Wolverines 29-28 at Yost Ice Arena. If that’s the floor against the best team in the country, the floor is high.

The polls agree. Western Michigan sits No. 6 in the USCHO poll and No. 5 in the USA Hockey poll this week, and College Hockey News’ NPI chart had the Broncos seventh as of Oct. 27, comfortably inside the top 16.

What a deep run would take

Here is where the take gets more careful. Making the NCAA tournament and winning in it are different jobs, and the NCHC is the reason.

The league has won eight of the last 10 national championships, and Denver has three of them since 2022. The Pioneers are the team Western Michigan beat to reach the 2025 final and the team that ended the Broncos’ 2026 season. Any path back to the Frozen Four likely runs through them or a team like them.

Three things stand out.

Finishing against elite teams. The numbers against the early schedule are strong, but shot volume matters less in March than turning chances into goals against top goalies. At Yost, 29 shots produced two goals, one of them shorthanded, and the power play went 0-for-4.

Goaltending holding up under the biggest workload. Miller’s start is as good as it gets. The real test comes over a full season in a conference this deep, and in a one-and-done regional where one soft goal can end a season.

Closing tight games. The 2025 title team won two one-goal games in its regional and a double-overtime semifinal. This season’s lone loss was a one-goal game. Those are the games that decide March.

What to watch

The Broncos host Long Island at Lawson Arena on Oct. 29-30, part of the building’s final season before the program moves into a new arena. NCHC play is still ahead, and on Jan. 30, 2027, Western Michigan hosts Michigan in an outdoor game at Waldo Stadium, a chance at a rematch on a very different stage.

Mitten Hockey’s lean: Western Michigan makes a sixth straight NCAA tournament, and if the defense and goaltending hold anywhere near this level, a high seed is realistic. Whether it gets back to the Frozen Four is more open. The roster, the depth of scoring, and the recent track record say this team can beat anyone in a single game. Doing it two or three times in a row in the spring, likely against an NCHC rival, is the bar this program has set for itself. That it’s even the bar says how far the Broncos have come.

Sources

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