UND Hockey Uses “Next-man-up” Mentality in St. Cloud State Series

The Fighting Hawks were without their top two goal scorers in Jordan Kawaguchi and Shane Pinto

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — For the first time since October, UND hockey finished a weekend without a win, ending a series against St. Cloud State with a loss and a tie.

On Saturday night, the Hawks were without two of their top goal scorers as Jordan Kawaguchi sat out with an undisclosed injury and Shane Pinto was ejected after a checking-from-behind penalty in the first period.

Even though the Hawks came out on the losing side of things in that game, UND had the chance to prove once again that they live by the next-man-up mentality.

“It just shows how strong we are as a team in terms of our depth,” said senior Andrew Peski. “Just cause we have our two top goal scorers [out] doesn’t mean that it is an automatic loss, we are going to put up a fight regardless of who is in the lineup.”

Because the hawks were unexpectedly left without a forward after Pinto exited the game, head coach Brad Berry shook up the offensive lines. Sophomore Jonny Tychonick – who entered the game as an extra defenseman – got the call up to play forward to help fill the absences.

“I enjoyed it honestly. I ask Bubs [Berry], I was like, ‘hey if you need me up front, I can play wing.'” Tychonick said. “I haven’t played wing in a while. I played center in like peewee. That was the last time I played up front. With seven defensemen, it is obviously tough to get into the rotation; limited shifts just because of power plays and penalty kills, so I wanted to get in the game any way I could. I just didn’t want to sit there so Bubs  gave me an opportunity and I did pretty well I thought out of it.”