Western Michigan’s run to the program’s first national championship was nothing short of spectacular for coach Pat Ferschweiller and his team.
It provided countless moments of jubilation and celebration, you would suppose, for what likely felt like an endless summer for Broncos fans.
But as Western Michigan travels to Ferris State to begin its national title defense, other coaches who have been in Ferschweiler’s position in recent years have cautionary tales to tell.
Any coach will acknowledge the positive impact a national championship has on a university. Your school is now the “it” program, a place desirable to future student-athletes.
And while attracting the best players is pretty much the first rule of “Recruiting 101,” that’s not always a positive.
“You get players that wouldn’t necessarily want to talk to you before [the national championship],” said Greg Carvel, who led UMass to the national title game in its first Frozen Four appearance in 2019 and two years later won the national title over St. Cloud State.
Carvel said the identity that builds your best teams can get lost once you win. “I think we made some mistakes taking kids that came to us for the wrong reasons,” he said. “When you built a national championship team by taking a certain type of player and then you go to take the sexy ones, and you forget what won you the national championship.”
UMass made the national tournament a year later, though the following season, 2022-23, the Minutemen posted their worst record under Carvel, going 13-17-5 and missing the NCAAs. They’ve since made the last two tournaments.
Another team that has become a household name in college hockey because of its recent success is Quinnipiac. The Bobcats reached two national title games in 2013 and 2016 before finally reaching the game’s ultimate pinnacle with a 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota in the 2023 national title game.
The Bobcats have rarely hit speed bumps in the last decade plus, making six straight and 10 of the last 12 NCAA tournaments. And while Rand Pecknold admits winning in 2023 “certainly helped admissions,” he also acknowledged success is never guaranteed.
“Everybody thinks like, ‘Oh my god, it must be easy now,’” said Pecknold. “It’s not easy. It’s never easy. It’s a war every day.
“Certainly for me, personally, I think it’s like a life-changing experience. It just changes your life in a positive way. But we’ve got to continue to grind. It’s hard; it’s hard to win in college hockey.”
For Quinnipiac, Pecknold said that as much as winning a championship helped in some recruiting battles, the biggest battle he has won hasn’t been recruiting players.
“The biggest thing for me is I’ve been able to keep Joe Dumais,” Pecknold said in reference to Quinnipiac’s associate head coach who, after winning in 2023, Pecknold credited with developing the now-famous faceoff play that led to the championship-winning goal. “He’s had three job offers and he’s turned them all down.
“Every time that happens, I get 20 texts the next day [saying], ‘That’s the best recruit for the year.’”
Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin has a truly unique position among championship-winning coaches. His Bulldogs ended a long drought for first-time champion in 2011 with an overtime win over Michigan in St. Paul, Minn. At the time, Minnesota Duluth was the first team in 18 years – since the 1993 Maine Black Bears – to become a first-time champion.
Sandelin, though, not only led his team to its first title, he and his Bulldogs repeated the feat twice since. And while Carvel acknowledged the importance of continuing to bring in the right type of players, Sandelin said he has always been concerned about keeping returning players hungry.
“Anytime you win, next year you always wonder what the kids are thinking. Are they motivated?” said Sandelin, who led the Bulldogs to titles in 2011, 2018 and 2019 as well as a final appearance in 2017. “When we had that run in ’17, ’18 and ’19, it just felt different. After 2018, you’re thinking, ‘OK, some guys have been [to the national championship game] two times. So how motivated could they stay.”
And therein lies the challenge. Western Michigan is the seventh first-time champion in NCAA Division I men’s hockey since 2011. So far, Minnesota Duluth is the only one to even return to a Frozen Four since, let alone win a national title.
That said, pretty much any coach will tell you that the experience gained from winning is something that simply can’t be fabricated.
“You can talk about winning championships and playing in the [NCAA] regionals,” Sandelin said. “But when you don’t have any guys that have done it, it’s hard. It’s really hard.”