University of North Dakota sophomore, walk-on forward Mike Gornall has missed about 80 percent of the games that UND has played during his two-year career. In two seasons with UND, Gornall has played in 13 games, scoring (3g-1a-4-pts), he’s also a plus-two.
Two weeks ago, with all of the injuries that UND had suffered, Gornall’s number was called, he was the next man up. On Saturday night against the Huskies Gornall made the most of his opportunity, scoring two goals.
I think that it’s safe to say that Gornall was this weekend’s unlikely hero. On Saturday night, with the game tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, the game went to overtime. UND wasted little time ending the game, Gornall scored the game-winning goal 41 seconds into the overtime period sending 11,744 Hawks fans into a frenzy. Checking the box score, Gornall also scored the game-tying goal. Who knew that Gornall’s 13th game in uniform would be his biggest.
In his second ever appearance at the post-game press conference, Gornall took it all in stride, more importantly, he was happy his team got the win.
“It feels great, the big thing is that we won,” Gornall said. “Wins have been a little scarce lately for us. It’s huge to get a win in our building going into the bye week, building momentum for the rest of the regular season”
Limited playing time aside, none of that has matter the past two weekends. With UND head coach Berry, the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back of the jersey. Historically, role players scoring important games has been part of the UND culture.
Gornall’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed, he’s caught the attention of the UND coaching staff. Head coach Brad Berry was very happy to see Gornall score the game-winning goal for the Hawks.
“We were all very happy for him,” coach Berry said. “He’s a guy that comes to work every single day. He’s earns everything that he gets. He does it the hard way. It’s great to see him have a little bit of success here. We needed it. We need guys like that to step up. The moral on the bench was second to none.”
Highlights of @UNDmhockey's 2-1 OT win over @SCSUHUSKIES_MH. https://t.co/PZCGk0TPzQ
— UND Insider (@UNDinsider) February 5, 2017
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