NCAA hockey hero Michaels’ journey paved with sacrifice, resilience
Owen Michaels is pictured with his parents, Dan and Judy. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MICHAELS FAMILY
Roughly 18 years before he scored the dramatic game-winning goal Thursday night in Western Michigan University’s double-overtime triumph over defending champion Denver in the NCAA Frozen Four, Northville native Owen Michaels took a learn-to-skate class at Plymouth’s Compuware Arena.
Sandwiched between the lessons and the heroics were perseverance-testing junior hockey stops in Lincoln, Nebraska; Bismarck, North Dakota; and Dubuque, Iowa — all off-Broadway destinations, to say the least.
Which explains why, when Michaels’s game-winner found the back of the net Thursday night, his parents, Dan and Judy, let their emotions flow as they celebrated with other players’ parents in the stands of St. Louis’s Enterprise Center.
“We weren’t holding back the tears,” said Dan Michaels, his voice cracking with emotion as he explained the moments after Owen’s goal that won’t soon be forgotten in Kalamazoo.
Sacrifice, hard work rewarded
“It’s hard to put it into words. It’s not an easy road for these kids. They give up a normal high school life to move to towns like Lincoln, and Bismarck, and Dubuque, like Owen did. And it hasn’t been a textbook road for Owen; he’s had some hurdles to overcome.
“So to see him score such a huge goal, well, it’s hard to explain how proud we are of him and happy we are for him.”
The moment Dan and Judy interacted with their son for the first time after the game, in a corridor inside the arena, was priceless.
“We hugged him and told him, ‘You deserve this, you earned this’,” Dan Michaels shared. “He just smiled and gave us a big hug.”
Overwhelming response from family, friends
Following the game, Dan and Judy went out to grab a bite to eat with other WMU players’ parents before heading back to their hotel room.
“The number of texts and messages we received from family, friends, Owen’s former billets, friends we’ve met along Owen’s hockey journey, was just unbelievable,” Dan said. “I bet I got 500 text messages last night. It was so touching.”
A former student at Amermen Elementary School, Hillside Middle School, Detroit Catholic Central (one year) and Northville High School (two years), Owen Michaels was all-in on hockey from the first time he laced up his skates as a pre-schooler.
“He excelled in other sports — basketball, baseball and soccer — but he loved hockey as a kid,” Dan recounted.
“When we lived in Novi, in the Mystic Forest sub, there was a pond by our house. When it froze over in the winter, one of our neighbors, Al Ryding, would clear the pond when it snowed — he was our Al Sobotka — put the nets out and the kids and adults played hockey for hours upon hours.
Passion for the puck
“In the summer, Owen would shoot pucks endlessly in our driveway. So to see all the time he’s invested in the sport pay off like it has this season is amazing.”
Dan Michaels emphasized the level of blood, sweat and tears required to play collegiate hockey.
“With football and basketball, a lot of the players who end up playing in college are usually the homecoming kings, dating the homecoming queens, and then they get to college and they’re the big men on campus,” Michaels said.
“Getting to college hockey is such a different kind of grind for these kids. It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude. I don’t know how well I would have done living with a family I had never met, hundreds of miles away from home, during my senior year of high school.”
Saturday’s national championship game between WMU and Boston University is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.
A victory by the Broncos would give Western its first Division 1 championship in any sport since its cross country team earned back-to-back titles in the mid-60s.
Win or lose, Owen Michaels’s inspiring story will never be diminished.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
