COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – After stellar postseason performances and finishing the season on fire, three National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) standouts have been selected HCA National Players of the Month for March/April, as the Hockey Commissioners Association (HCA)
announced its final national monthly awards for the 2025-26 season on Thursday.
Minnesota Duluth sophomore
Zam Plante was tabbed National Co-Forward of the Month for March/April, while Denver freshmen
Johnny Hicks and
Clarke Caswell collected National Goaltender of the Month and National Co-Rookie of the Month, respectively, after helping the Pioneers win the 2026 NCAA National Championship. All three picked up
NCHC Players of the Month honors for March/April on Wednesday.
Plante shared his National Co-Forward of the Month honor with Michigan senior T.J. Hughes, while Caswell split his Rookie award with Ohio State freshman forward Jake Karabela.
Plante (Hermantown, Minn.) joins his brother, Max, in winning an HCA monthly honor after Max earned the same award for October this season. Zam finished the season on a seven-game point streak, helping the Bulldogs reach the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship Game and the NCAA Albany Region Final. The Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick tied for first nationally in the postseason with 10 points in March, while averaging 1.67 points per game. Plante scored four goals and added six assists in only six games, with his six helpers tied for first in the NCAA last month. He recorded at least one point in all six games in March, including two multi-goal games and four multi-point outings.
Plante started the NCHC Tournament with a bang, scoring the game-tying and overtime game-winning goals both nights in an NCHC Quarterfinal series sweep of St. Cloud State on March 6-7. The Third-Team All-NCHC center then dished out an assist in both the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals (March 14 in a win at North Dakota) and Championship Game, when UMD fell in double overtime to Denver. With four goals and six points in the 2026 NCHC Tournament, Plante was named to the Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team.
In the NCAA Tournament, Plante handed out four assists in the Albany Regional, with two in each game – a 3-1 win over Penn State on March 27 and a 4-3 regional final loss to No. 1 Michigan. He finished the postseason with 28 shots on goal, third in the NCAA in March, a +6 plus/minus and 72 faceoff wins.
Plante ended his sophomore season tied for fifth nationally and second in the NCHC (behind his brother and Hobey Baker Award winner, Max) with a career-high 51 points, averaging 1.28 points per game. He scored 20 goals and dished out 31 assists this year, which tied for second in the NCHC and seventh nationally. Plante committed only one penalty all season and compiled a +16 plus/minus while firing 150 shots on goal.
Hicks (Kamloops, B.C.) was heroic in backstopping the Pioneers to the 2026 NCHC Frozen Faceoff title on home ice and the program’s record 11th NCAA National Championship in Las Vegas, finishing the year on a 13-game winning streak. The 5-foot-10 undrafted freshman was nearly flawless in the postseason, going 8-0-0 while ranking second nationally and first in the NCHC with both a .956 save percentage and a 1.24 goals-against average in March and April. Hicks logged two shutouts in March and totaled 241 saves in the postseason, tops in the NCAA, averaging more than 30 saves per game.
Hicks racked up many awards in the postseason, earning a hat trick of Most Outstanding Player honors at the 2026 NCHC Frozen Faceoff, the NCAA Loveland Regional and the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four. He was named to the All-Tournament Team for all three postseason events, as well. Hicks opened the NCHC Frozen Faceoff with a 23-save shutout of Miami on March 6, before making 38 saves in a 2-1 overtime win over Western Michigan in the semifinals a week later. Hicks made a then-career-high 41 stops in the Frozen Faceoff Championship to help DU defeat UMD, 4-3, in double overtime and lift the National Cup on March 21.
Hicks also started the NCAA Tournament with a shutout, blanking Cornell with 24 saves on March 27. In the Frozen Four, the freshman was at his best, racking up a career-high 49 saves in a 4-3, double-overtime win over No. 1 Michigan on April 9. In the National Championship two days later, Hicks turned aside 29 of 30 shots faced to lead Denver to a 2-1 win over Wisconsin and its third NCAA crown in five years.
Hicks finished the season undefeated at 16-0-1 while setting the NCAA single-season record with a .957 save percentage, surpassing Maine’s Jimmy Howard (.956) in 2004. Hicks’ 1.19 goals-against average is also an NCHC single-season record (minimum 500 minutes played) and ranks third all-time in NCAA history. He compiled three shutouts on the season, as well, after taking over the Denver net in late January.
Caswell (Brandon, Manitoba) came up clutch for Denver in the postseason, totaling nine points in eight games to lead all NCHC rookies and tie with OSU’s Karabela for first among NCAA freshmen in points in March/April. The Seattle Kraken draft pick scored four goals and added five assists, with the four goals tying for the NCAA rookie lead in the postseason. Caswell posted a +7 plus/minus in March and April to lead NCAA rookies, while winning 70 faceoffs, tying for first among NCAA freshmen.
Caswell recorded points in six of his eight postseason games, including three multi-point outings. After notching a goal and an assist in an NCHC Quarterfinal sweep of Miami, the freshman center tallied a goal and an assist in the Frozen Faceoff Championship against Minnesota Duluth on March 21, including the primary assist on the double-overtime game-winning goal on home ice.
In the NCAA Tournament, Caswell logged another goal and assist in a 5-0 shutout of Cornell on March 27, while chipping in his second assist of the weekend in a win over Western Michigan to book a trip to the Frozen Four. Caswell was named to the Loveland Region All-Tournament Team for his three-point weekend. In the Frozen Four Semifinals against Michigan on April 9, he again recorded a goal and an assist, with his goal tying the game late in the third period at 3-3 as DU went on to win in double overtime.
Caswell finished the season with 34 points on eight goals and 26 assists, ranking fourth on the Pioneers in scoring. His 26 assists were second among NCHC freshmen this season, while his 34 points tied for second among NCHC rookies and 17th among all NCHC skaters.
The fourth HCA national monthly award for March/April went to Wisconsin’s Ben Dexheimer, who was named Men’s National Defenseman of the Month. Denver junior blueliner
Garrett Brown was a runner-up for the honor.
2025-26 HCA National Monthly Award Winners from the NCHC
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