Rochester hockey stars reunited at NCAA tournament

Mar. 28—When Pat Ferschweiler watches Bennett Zmolek play hockey, he can't help but flash back to the mid-1980s.

If Ferschweiler didn't know better, he'd swear his old youth and high school teammate was back on the ice, playing against his current team.

"He's an old-school throwback," Ferschweiler said of Zmolek, a sophomore defenseman at North Dakota, "a shot-blocking, hard-nosed competitor. He just seems to find his way to wins, not unlike his father."

Ferschweiler, now 54 and in his third season as the head coach at Western Michigan University, knows a Zmolek when he sees one. And he's not at all surprised at the success Bennett, the youngest of Doug and Jennifer Zmolek's three sons, has had this season.

Ferschweiler and Doug Zmolek go back more than 40 years, as friends and teammates. They played together from the time they started in the Rochester Youth Hockey Association, all the way through their high school playing days at Rochester John Marshall.

They were linemates in their Bantam years — along with former Rochester Grizzlies head coach Chris Ratzloff — when Doug Zmolek still played forward. When he arrived at John Marshall, he became a defenseman, a position that carried him to a three-year career at the University of Minnesota, made him the No. 7 overall pick in the 1989 NHL Draft (by the Minnesota North Stars), and helped him spend eight seasons in the NHL.

"Doug led in a lot of ways," Ferschweiler said, "whether it was through his play, emotion, leadership on and off the ice, and it looks like that's what his son is doing now."

Doug Zmolek, Bennett Zmolek and Ferschweiler will have a bit of a reunion this week — though it's a business trip for Ferschweiler and the younger Zmolek — in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights, Mo., where Ferschweiler's Broncos and Bennett Zmolek's Fighting Hawks begin play in the NCAA Tournament.

Western Michigan, the No. 4 seed in the four-team Maryland Heights regional, faces top-seeded Michigan State at 4 p.m. Friday (ESPNU). That game will be followed by No. 2 seed North Dakota against No. 3 seed Michigan at 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU). If the Broncos and Fighting Hawks win Friday, they'll face one another at 5:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2) for a spot in the Frozen Four, which is set for April 11 and 13 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Just as Ferschweiler can see a lot of Doug Zmolek when he watches Bennett play, Doug Zmolek sees a lot of Ferschweiler when he watches Western Michigan.

"(Ferschweiler) was an IQ player, very headsy player," Doug Zmolek said. "He showed up every night, you never had to question that. He was consistent, a pass-first type of guy, very smart player. His Western Michigan teams, you can see how hard they play and they seem very consistent. They're extremely quick. They get their transition game going and they attack quickly."

Though Doug Zmolek still has a soft spot for the University of Minnesota, he has no problem admitting that he has pushed the maroon and gold to the depths of his closet in recent years.

It was first replaced with the purple and gold of Minnesota State, Mankato, when his oldest son Riese played for the Mavericks from 2017-21, then with the deep green and white of Bemidji State when middle son Will played for the Beavers from 2019-23.

This year, it's kelly green and black for Bennett and North Dakota, with some purple and white beginning to mix in for daughter Ella, a senior at Rochester Century High School who will begin her college volleyball career at Winona State University in the fall.

Doug and Jennifer have taken a great deal of pride in watching Bennett play for a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country for a short stretch this season, won the National Collegiate Hockey Conference regular season championship and enters the national tournament ranked No. 5 with a 26-11-2 record.

"Benny talks a lot about the veterans there and their leadership," Doug Zmolek said, "and the pride they take in going out and playing their best every night. And he talks about how tough that league is, top to bottom, you never get a night off."

Bennett Zmolek, who played his sophomore and junior seasons at Century before departing for Cedar Rapids of the USHL in his senior year, has fit right in at North Dakota, having transferred there last spring after two injury-filled seasons at MSU, Mankato.

He leads the team and the conference in blocked shots — and likely the number of post-game ice packs needed to soothe the bumps and bruises that come with his physical style of play.

"The year gets pretty long," said Zmolek, who has eight assists and a team-best plus-18 plus/minus rating, in 32 games. "I'm doing pretty good right now, a few bumps and bruises, but nothing too crazy. Even more important than taking care of those is just taking care of your body, getting at least eight hours of sleep, eating right, hydrating, all the little things that add up."

The 6-foot-2, 193-pound Zmolek is in a unique situation this season. He joined a North Dakota team that lost every defenseman on its roster from a year ago — three to graduation, three who transferred to other programs and two who signed professional contracts. While that meant an entirely new crew of defensemen — four freshmen and four transfers — had to jell quickly, it also meant an equal playing field for the newcomers and a lot of ice time up for grabs for a team that plays its home games in front of nearly 12,000 fans at North Dakota's Engelstad Arena.

"The biggest thing was, we all came here last summer, all of us were new, we came in, put our heads down, listened (to the veterans) and went to work," Zmolek said. "Everyone came in just trying to learn and grow together. We were all new guys, coming from all over. We spent a lot of time together, hung out a lot from the time we got here.

"For us, it's battle hard, play good defense first and if you get chances offensively, you jump. It's been drilled in to us to play hard in front of our net, box out and just battle as hard as we can."

Perhaps Zmolek's biggest relief this season has been his ability to stay healthy, for the most part. He has missed seven games due to injuries — mostly related to his willingness to block shots with any part of his body, even those not protected by padding — but his 32 games played tops the total number of games he played in during his two seasons in Mankato. He played in 28 games for the Mavericks as a freshman in 2021-22, shuffling between forward and defense on a team that went 38-6-0 and reached the national championship game.

A late-season hip injury kept Zmolek out of the postseason that year, and it lingered through the entire 2022-23 season, in which he didn't play a game. He entered the transfer portal shortly after MSU, Mankato lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last spring, and quickly landed in North Dakota. When he took the ice for an exhibition game against Manitoba on Oct. 7, it marked his first game action in 595 days.

Friday, he'll play in a national tournament game for the first time.

"We were standing in the tunnel, waiting to go on the ice (against Manitoba) and they undid the curtain for us to go out," Zmolek said, "you look across and see all the students, hear all the fans, my jaw hit the floor. Not playing for 500-some days, that really stuck with me.

"I think the biggest thing is just not taking any day for granted. It goes by super fast; it feels like we just got here, but it's already March. ... This is the best time of the year. Every shift, every second of the game matters. One little bounce that could go one way or the other can change a game. This is what we've been working for the whole year."

The same can be said for Ferschweiler and the Broncos.

For the first time in program history, Western Michigan is in the national tournament for a third consecutive season. Two years ago, they won a national tournament game for the first time in program history, beating Northeastern 2-1 in overtime in a first-round game.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that success has happened in Ferschweiler's first three seasons as head coach. There's likely no one more passionate about Broncos hockey than he is, having recorded 30 goals and 95 points over his three seasons playing for them, including serving as the team's captain in 1992-93.

After playing eight seasons professionally in minor leagues, he returned to Kalamazoo as an assistant coach from 2010-14, then joined former Western Michigan head coach Jeff Blashill as an assistant coach with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins (2014-15) and the NHL's Detroit Red Wings (2015-19).

Ferschweiler's passion for the Broncos brought him back to Western Michigan in the fall of 2019, serving for two seasons as its associate head coach, then taking over as head coach when Andy Murray retired prior to the 2021-22 season.

"This is special for me because it's a program — it's my program, as far as being an alum," he said. "To come back after having played here and been a captain, it's special to have some success now and to build a program that I'd be proud of as a player and as an alum."

Like North Dakota, Western Michigan had a fair amount of turnover after last season. The Broncos lost their top three scorers — Ryan McAllister, Jason Polin and Max Sasson — who all finished in the top 15 in the country in scoring and combined for 138 points. All three had eligibility remaining, but all three signed with pro organizations.

It wasn't a surprise to Ferschweiler and his staff, who prepare for that exact scenario by developing players from within, and adding the right players from the transfer portal to fill key roles. Career years from home-grown forwards Luke Grainger and Dylan Wendt (a combined 37 goals and 90 points), along with 23 goals from transfer Sam Colangelo, are a big reason why the Broncos have won 21 games and are still playing.

"I have two jobs here, to win hockey games and to develop players for the next level," Ferschweiler said. "That success of those guys moving on last year, having great years then getting pro contracts, that helps draw players in and some of the top transfers we were able to get.

"A lot of our growth has come from within, too. We have to develop guys from within. We're not getting fistfuls of first-rounders like some other programs. We try to get great hockey players who have great work ethics."

That's exactly the way those who know Ferschweiler best describe him as a player. And though Kalamazoo is his home now, he hasn't lost touch with his roots. Most of his family still lives in Rochester, and he said he and his assistant coaches watched the entire Minnesota high school state tournament this year, primarily to scout for future Broncos, but seeing a Rochester team back in the big-school tournament was an added bonus. Ferschweiler's nephew, Easton, was a sophomore on the Century/John Marshall junior varsity this winter.

"I was really happy for their success," Ferschweiler said of Century/JM getting to state, adding it was "kind of crushing" to see JM not have its own program, "It's such a magical event. I was able to play in it my senior year (1988). It's so special, and it's high level hockey."

Now, though, his focus is back on the present and potentially earning a matchup against Zmolek and North Dakota on Sunday, if both teams can find a way to win Friday. Western Michigan enters as the No. 4 seed in the four-team regional, the second-to-last team to earn an at-large bid to the 16-team tournament. But the Broncos don't see themselves as underdogs.

"We never look at ourselves that way," Ferschweiler said. "We played a lot of really, really good hockey this year and had five or six losses in overtime. We've played some really good hockey and not always been rewarded with a win.

"We'll have to beat two quality teams if we want to get to the Frozen Four, but we've played well against good teams this year. Our guys are excited."