Presumably you have already set ToolManager.mouseWheelBehavior to `go.ToolManager.WheelZoom. In addition, you could override ToolManager.doActivate to force the wheel behavior to be zoom.
$(go.Diagram, . . .,
{
. . .,
"toolManager.mouseWheelBehavior": go.ToolManager.WheelZoom,
"toolManager.doActivate": function() {
this.mouseWheelBehavior = go.ToolManager.WheelZoom;
go.ToolManager.prototype.doActivate.call(this);
},
. . .
[EDIT] Oh, I see you have discovered the same solution that I just rediscovered: How can I cancel the default middle click event?