March 10, 2026 • 10 mins
UND Head Hockey Coach Dane Jackson breaks down the Penrose Cup series, highlighting his strong roster of league players. He reflects on the best-of-three matchup, including a tight Friday game where Omaha built an early lead, and how key locker room talks sparked a dominant second period. Dane also discusses losing special players but praises the ready and capable replacements who stepped up. The Fighting Hawks ultimately captured the Penrose Cup with back-to-back wins over Western Michigan, securing the NCHC regular-season championship.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
And we welcome you back here to another segment of
HOWK Talk. I'm Paul Ralston and we welcome you joining
us back with head coach Dane Jackson, who brought in
the Penrose Cup here tonight. That's so cool. Tell you what,
We've got a lot to talk about with you indie hockey,
because a lot has been coming out in regards to awards.
(00:24):
In fact, I think they placed four freshmen on the
All NCCHC Newcomer Team where they were freshmen kind of
like freshman Cole Reshni, Will Zellers, Keaton Verhoff and I'm
missing you and Schounar I got you there, Coach da
So four on the All Rookie team.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's awesome, scity.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And then I think the most recent one today was
the all the other NCCHC. You had five five spots
on All NCCHC teams, including junior defenseman Jake Levanovich Ellis
Rickwood was named to the third team, Abram Weeb was
a second team All selection, Ben Strnden also an All
(01:08):
second team selection, and Spoonard becoming the first freshman goaltender
to be named to the first team. So congratulations to
all those young men. Yeah really good stuff. So when
you look at that and you look at the year
that has been in the journey you've been on, not
surprising that you start to see some of that come
(01:30):
your way. And for those young guys and you know,
individual accolades. These guys are really team orienteded, but you know,
you hope that they at least take a moment and
really appreciate the work that they've put into to attain
these individual honors.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You know, all those guys are team first guys and
we're focused on the big prizes ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But I think it's great to take them take.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
A minute and just say, hey, these guys have been
elite players and one of the you know, I believe
the best league in college hockey. And when you say
you're it's basically being an All American or something if
you're a first, second, or third team in our league.
So well deserved. They've put together awesome years. And you know,
the nice thing I think when you look at those guys,
they have great points, but all those guys are like
(02:17):
plus twenty plus fourteen plus seventeen, so they're like really
good two way players that have you know, been strong players,
not just scoring the power play.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well a couple of different things here in the series
that was against Omaha, best two out of three. You
guys got it over with two straight wins on Friday
and Saturday night. Nothing ever comes easy. Friday was a
fairly tight contest where where you had to do some
rallying a little bit and tell us a little bit
about kind of just kind of reeling that game in
(02:49):
a little bit on Friday night.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, I thought Omaha was a little more ready to
play than us. I thought they were playing a little
bit faster and a little bit harder, or they were
just a little more sharp at the start of the game.
And you know, they had they built a lead, and
you know, we need to get chats in the locker room.
It's not about what we say. It's the guys know
who we want to be and what we're what we're
all about. And then we just kind of got back to,
(03:12):
you know, really kind of playing our our way. You know,
all the little battles, the little races, you know, this
this small attention to detail, those things kind of add up.
So we started trying to win the battles to win
the war, and we did a nice job of kind
of taking over the game after that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, one of the things that you talked about
earlier this morning on a conversation with our morning show was,
well that night was that whole day was kind of
a unique day as you were learning in real time
of roster changes. It happens at times during the season.
I don't know necessarily that you're planning for it going
into game one of the best of three game series,
but you mentioned that you and your staff didn't really
(03:49):
have a lot of concern about the guys that you
were going to turn to because they they tend to
be doing it the right way day and day out
within practices.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Correct. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously, you know, losing spell players like we just mentioned, Uh,
you know Strends as a you know, leading scorer and
Zell's as a top freshman in our league. So those
guys are you know, they're irreplaceable because they have special
talents and and you know Strends has played for a
long time. But you just kind of know that you
have good players. You have guys that have been prepared.
You know, they're they've been working hard, they're in shape,
(04:20):
they're kind of ready, and uh, you know, then to
see a guy like Dalton Andrew win and score a
goal like our whole team just gets a lift because
you see Dalton practice every day and not get rewarded,
not get to get in the lineup, and then for
him to come in there and play well and have
a big goal, that just just lifts everybody up.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, you look
at it from a standpoint and that's the what that
made it three to two at the time too, So
I mean you're talking about as as goals come, they
don't get much bigger in a game like that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that was a big one.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
The boys were, Bos're fired up for him, and uh yeah,
super excited for Dalton.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
That the fourth line.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You know, one of the things that I keep reading
when you would some of these guys that are winning
some of these honors, is, you know, has this type
of percentage in the faceoff dot?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Has this type of percentage in the faceoff dot? Does
that get.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Overlooked a little bit so often where how many goals
and assist does a person have or things of that nature,
But that win percentage in the faceoff dot certainly becomes
pretty big time as the season wears on, and it
seems like you have, you know a lot of solid
guys that you can go to over and over again.
Within the dot.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Face off dot's a big thing, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You see you know, living Oageen and Zamolac, the are
up for defensive player, Defensive Defenseman of the Year. They've
got all these block shots. You know, I spoke with
the plus minus. You know, it's just these guys with
a lot of hits, like those things are just.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Substance things that help you win games. You know you
used to.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And they're not just scoring kind of easier points in
the power play. You know, they're earning their ice, and
they're they're playing hard two hundred foot games and they're
competing consistently and they're doing all the small little.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Things to win games. And I think that's what we know.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And the other coaches vote for players, you know, they see,
you know, these guys that are that are helping us
get wins because they do all these small kind of
you know, dirty hard things that you need to do
to win the games.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Friday night turns into Saturday. It's always difficult to end
a team season. They're just not gonna go quietly. They
get the first one on Saturday night, you guys even
it up before the period's over. Maybe that's really the
key in something like that is to just make sure
you get to that first break, like, you know, put
in the stamp on, like, hey, you guys got the
early lead, but we're going to the break level and
(06:33):
taken over from there. So a nice response by your team.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Again, Yeah, they made a nice face off play.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know, I didn't think they were getting too much,
but they they may they want to draw on they
executed a face off play. Well give them credit. Not
much Spoons could do on that. There was traffic and
a screen there off a one time shot. But I
thought we did a night like I liked our first
period on Saturday and then again Saturday, the second period
was kind of close, kind of close. You know, we
got one and then I thought, I thought Zell scoring
(06:58):
right at the end, that we had a great shift. Yeah,
I almost scored right before, and then we we he
got went into the net and got a hard nose goal.
So I thought when we went three to one, that
was a really good sign because we've been so strong
in the third period.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, I think it's just like anything, you know, I
was covering basketball, and the opponent made a big play
on their final possession just before halftime on Sunday night,
and you get a goal inside the final minute of play,
the momentum going into a locker room and then coming
out the next period, just it adds that lift, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
You know there's those kind of key times in a
game when plays are made. Obviously it doesn't affect everything,
but there there is some emotional swings and our guy's
done a good job of kind of always you know,
last minutes of periods. We talked about really being good
there and and so that was a Yeah, that was
definitely a huge.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Boost for us.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'd be remiss to say, like the end of that
game was very interesting. You know, there's some frustration going
on and you have to manage it knowing that you're
the guys in the lead and you guys got more
hockey to play. But I'll be perfectly honest with you
if I if I see my teammate being accosted in
(08:10):
that manner because I saw what had occurred, because the
goal had already been scored, the play is over. Yeah,
it's hard to be a coach and say you can't
have a reaction, or guys can't come to the aid
of a player, or you know, I'm almost to the
point where you just kind of understand that that's the
game and everybody's gonna come in there in the end,
(08:31):
you know, we move on. But I certainly understand why
that that happened at you know, at the end, why
guys came to to got in that fractus a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, and you gotta be smart, like obviously we talk
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
We actually, you know, as we're coming down the stretch,
we mentioned that, hey, this could happen, so you know,
you stand up for each other. You don't put yourself
in a bad spot. You know, you kind of keep
your stick a little higher and protect yourself if they're.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Gonna run at somebody.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But again, you can't get a fighting major. You can't
put yourself in a position that was gonna take you
out for the next game.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It was just one of those situations where as a
as a fan and an observer watching, I can you know,
I understand, you know, being on the other side of it,
being frustrated, but that was just unnecessary. And then you
know the response I I you know, from North Cota
side of it. I was like completely understand it. I
was like, you know, but you've been part of the
(09:22):
game a long time. You've seen a little bit of everything,
so you're never really probably surprised anything comes your way.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and some things, you know, I was just reading
some quotes.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I don't know if hockey fans out there were watching,
but the other day Buffalo Sabers and Tampa Bay had
had a big game, you know, I think it was
eight seven final or seven six, but there was a
you know, a lot of physicality and fights and guys
kind of sticking up for each other, and you know,
that's goin. That can be kind of a bonding moment
where it's like, hey, it's a bunch of guys battling
together and someone gets taken advantage of and you stand
(09:51):
up there and you know, you fight with and for
your teammates, and that's that's called being a team and
that's what you do, and it can be a real
thing that kind of galvanizes your group.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, we're gonna talk about the upcoming weekend ahead. It's
only one game. If you don't have tickets, I would
recommend that you get them, and if you're going to
the building, we're still greening out. It's all green all
in at rolf F Eingalstead Arena for this one game
semifinal Saturday night puck drop at six oh seven, we'll
talk with head coach Dan Jackson. We're gonna take some
more pictures of the Penrose Cup over there that is
(10:21):
prominently displayed here at the five zero six pubs. So
when we return, we'll talk about Northcote's opponent in the semifinals,
Minnesota Duluth.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
When we return with more
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Hawk doc all across the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.
And we welcome you back here to another segment of
HOWK Talk. I'm Paul Ralston and we welcome you joining
us back with head coach Dane Jackson, who brought in
the Penrose Cup here tonight. That's so cool. Tell you what,
We've got a lot to talk about with you indie hockey,
because a lot has been coming out in regards to awards.
(00:24):
In fact, I think they placed four freshmen on the
All NCCHC Newcomer Team where they were freshmen kind of
like freshman Cole Reshni, Will Zellers, Keaton Verhoff and I'm
missing you and Schounar I got you there, Coach da
So four on the All Rookie team.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's awesome, scity.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And then I think the most recent one today was
the all the other NCCHC. You had five five spots
on All NCCHC teams, including junior defenseman Jake Levanovich Ellis
Rickwood was named to the third team, Abram Weeb was
a second team All selection, Ben Strnden also an All
(01:08):
second team selection, and Spoonard becoming the first freshman goaltender
to be named to the first team. So congratulations to
all those young men. Yeah really good stuff. So when
you look at that and you look at the year
that has been in the journey you've been on, not
surprising that you start to see some of that come
(01:30):
your way. And for those young guys and you know,
individual accolades. These guys are really team orienteded, but you know,
you hope that they at least take a moment and
really appreciate the work that they've put into to attain
these individual honors.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You know, all those guys are team first guys and
we're focused on the big prizes ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But I think it's great to take them take.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
A minute and just say, hey, these guys have been
elite players and one of the you know, I believe
the best league in college hockey. And when you say
you're it's basically being an All American or something if
you're a first, second, or third team in our league.
So well deserved. They've put together awesome years. And you know,
the nice thing I think when you look at those guys,
they have great points, but all those guys are like
(02:17):
plus twenty plus fourteen plus seventeen, so they're like really
good two way players that have you know, been strong players,
not just scoring the power play.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well a couple of different things here in the series
that was against Omaha, best two out of three. You
guys got it over with two straight wins on Friday
and Saturday night. Nothing ever comes easy. Friday was a
fairly tight contest where where you had to do some
rallying a little bit and tell us a little bit
about kind of just kind of reeling that game in
(02:49):
a little bit on Friday night.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, I thought Omaha was a little more ready to
play than us. I thought they were playing a little
bit faster and a little bit harder, or they were
just a little more sharp at the start of the game.
And you know, they had they built a lead, and
you know, we need to get chats in the locker room.
It's not about what we say. It's the guys know
who we want to be and what we're what we're
all about. And then we just kind of got back to,
(03:12):
you know, really kind of playing our our way. You know,
all the little battles, the little races, you know, this
this small attention to detail, those things kind of add up.
So we started trying to win the battles to win
the war, and we did a nice job of kind
of taking over the game after that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, one of the things that you talked about
earlier this morning on a conversation with our morning show was,
well that night was that whole day was kind of
a unique day as you were learning in real time
of roster changes. It happens at times during the season.
I don't know necessarily that you're planning for it going
into game one of the best of three game series,
but you mentioned that you and your staff didn't really
(03:49):
have a lot of concern about the guys that you
were going to turn to because they they tend to
be doing it the right way day and day out
within practices.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Correct. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously, you know, losing spell players like we just mentioned, Uh,
you know Strends as a you know, leading scorer and
Zell's as a top freshman in our league. So those
guys are you know, they're irreplaceable because they have special
talents and and you know Strends has played for a
long time. But you just kind of know that you
have good players. You have guys that have been prepared.
You know, they're they've been working hard, they're in shape,
(04:20):
they're kind of ready, and uh, you know, then to
see a guy like Dalton Andrew win and score a
goal like our whole team just gets a lift because
you see Dalton practice every day and not get rewarded,
not get to get in the lineup, and then for
him to come in there and play well and have
a big goal, that just just lifts everybody up.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, you look
at it from a standpoint and that's the what that
made it three to two at the time too, So
I mean you're talking about as as goals come, they
don't get much bigger in a game like that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that was a big one.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
The boys were, Bos're fired up for him, and uh yeah,
super excited for Dalton.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
That the fourth line.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You know, one of the things that I keep reading
when you would some of these guys that are winning
some of these honors, is, you know, has this type
of percentage in the faceoff dot?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Has this type of percentage in the faceoff dot? Does
that get.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Overlooked a little bit so often where how many goals
and assist does a person have or things of that nature,
But that win percentage in the faceoff dot certainly becomes
pretty big time as the season wears on, and it
seems like you have, you know a lot of solid
guys that you can go to over and over again.
Within the dot.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Face off dot's a big thing, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You see you know, living Oageen and Zamolac, the are
up for defensive player, Defensive Defenseman of the Year. They've
got all these block shots. You know, I spoke with
the plus minus. You know, it's just these guys with
a lot of hits, like those things are just.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Substance things that help you win games. You know you
used to.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And they're not just scoring kind of easier points in
the power play. You know, they're earning their ice, and
they're they're playing hard two hundred foot games and they're
competing consistently and they're doing all the small little.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Things to win games. And I think that's what we know.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And the other coaches vote for players, you know, they see,
you know, these guys that are that are helping us
get wins because they do all these small kind of
you know, dirty hard things that you need to do
to win the games.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Friday night turns into Saturday. It's always difficult to end
a team season. They're just not gonna go quietly. They
get the first one on Saturday night, you guys even
it up before the period's over. Maybe that's really the
key in something like that is to just make sure
you get to that first break, like, you know, put
in the stamp on, like, hey, you guys got the
early lead, but we're going to the break level and
(06:33):
taken over from there. So a nice response by your team.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Again, Yeah, they made a nice face off play.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know, I didn't think they were getting too much,
but they they may they want to draw on they
executed a face off play. Well give them credit. Not
much Spoons could do on that. There was traffic and
a screen there off a one time shot. But I
thought we did a night like I liked our first
period on Saturday and then again Saturday, the second period
was kind of close, kind of close. You know, we
got one and then I thought, I thought Zell scoring
(06:58):
right at the end, that we had a great shift. Yeah,
I almost scored right before, and then we we he
got went into the net and got a hard nose goal.
So I thought when we went three to one, that
was a really good sign because we've been so strong
in the third period.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, I think it's just like anything, you know, I
was covering basketball, and the opponent made a big play
on their final possession just before halftime on Sunday night,
and you get a goal inside the final minute of play,
the momentum going into a locker room and then coming
out the next period, just it adds that lift, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
You know there's those kind of key times in a
game when plays are made. Obviously it doesn't affect everything,
but there there is some emotional swings and our guy's
done a good job of kind of always you know,
last minutes of periods. We talked about really being good
there and and so that was a Yeah, that was
definitely a huge.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Boost for us.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'd be remiss to say, like the end of that
game was very interesting. You know, there's some frustration going
on and you have to manage it knowing that you're
the guys in the lead and you guys got more
hockey to play. But I'll be perfectly honest with you
if I if I see my teammate being accosted in
(08:10):
that manner because I saw what had occurred, because the
goal had already been scored, the play is over. Yeah,
it's hard to be a coach and say you can't
have a reaction, or guys can't come to the aid
of a player, or you know, I'm almost to the
point where you just kind of understand that that's the
game and everybody's gonna come in there in the end,
(08:31):
you know, we move on. But I certainly understand why
that that happened at you know, at the end, why
guys came to to got in that fractus a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, and you gotta be smart, like obviously we talk
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
We actually, you know, as we're coming down the stretch,
we mentioned that, hey, this could happen, so you know,
you stand up for each other. You don't put yourself
in a bad spot. You know, you kind of keep
your stick a little higher and protect yourself if they're.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Gonna run at somebody.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But again, you can't get a fighting major. You can't
put yourself in a position that was gonna take you
out for the next game.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It was just one of those situations where as a
as a fan and an observer watching, I can you know,
I understand, you know, being on the other side of it,
being frustrated, but that was just unnecessary. And then you
know the response I I you know, from North Cota
side of it. I was like completely understand it. I
was like, you know, but you've been part of the
(09:22):
game a long time. You've seen a little bit of everything,
so you're never really probably surprised anything comes your way.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and some things, you know, I was just reading
some quotes.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I don't know if hockey fans out there were watching,
but the other day Buffalo Sabers and Tampa Bay had
had a big game, you know, I think it was
eight seven final or seven six, but there was a
you know, a lot of physicality and fights and guys
kind of sticking up for each other, and you know,
that's goin. That can be kind of a bonding moment
where it's like, hey, it's a bunch of guys battling
together and someone gets taken advantage of and you stand
(09:51):
up there and you know, you fight with and for
your teammates, and that's that's called being a team and
that's what you do, and it can be a real
thing that kind of galvanizes your group.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, we're gonna talk about the upcoming weekend ahead. It's
only one game. If you don't have tickets, I would
recommend that you get them, and if you're going to
the building, we're still greening out. It's all green all
in at rolf F Eingalstead Arena for this one game
semifinal Saturday night puck drop at six oh seven, we'll
talk with head coach Dan Jackson. We're gonna take some
more pictures of the Penrose Cup over there that is
(10:21):
prominently displayed here at the five zero six pubs. So
when we return, we'll talk about Northcote's opponent in the semifinals,
Minnesota Duluth.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
When we return with more
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Hawk doc all across the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.
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