GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- What happens when your back-to-back winner of the Defenseman of the Week award in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference sits out a weekend series with an injury?
 
Magic, that's what. 
 
With junior defenseman Matt Kiersted sidelined for the weekend series with Colorado College, fellow defensemen Jonny Tychonick and Andrew Peski were two blueliners who stepped up big time. They certainly helped to fill the gap during Saturday's 8-1 victory for the University of North Dakota over Colorado College to complete the weekend sweep for the nation's No. 2-ranked team.
 
Peski had a career-best three assists and Tychonick, who scored the game-winner one week earlier in a 3-2 victory at Minnesota-Duluth, posted an absurd plus-6 in the plus/minus rating. That sent the historians scrambling through the records to find the last time a UND player had matched or bettered that mark.
 
It all attested to the depth of this team, as 13 different players had at least one point, and the top line of Collin Adams (goal, assist) centering Jordan Kawaguchi (2 goals, 1 assist) and Grant Mismash (goal, assist) combined for a 4-goal, 7-assist night.
 
"I thought the game started similar to last night (a 1-0 UND win),'' UND coach Brad Berry said. "The only thing is we scored on our first couple of shots, and that was the difference.''
 
Whereas CC goalie Matt Vernon stopped 29 of 30 UND shots Friday, he was beaten for six goals Saturday in two periods before being lifted from the game.
 
On the other hand, UND goalie Peter Thome nearly posted consecutive shutouts, before being beaten glove side by CC defenseman Connor Mayer at 9:12 of the third period with the Fighting Hawks ahead 8-0 at the time.
 
But by then, UND was on its way to its eighth series sweep of the season and maintained its eight-point lead in the NCHC over second-place Minnesota-Duluth with eight games remaining.
 
"We got momentum tonight, where last night it was kind of tough to hit the back of the net,'' Berry said. "We found a way to win last night, and tonight we got a little bit of momentum and put some shifts together early. That was the key, obviously.''
 
It keyed up the fourth time this season that the nation's top-scoring team has scored eight or more goals and the 12th time UND (21-3-3 overall, 12-2-2 NCHC) has allowed one goal or less.
 
Cole Smith, Adams, Jasper Weatherby and Mismash staked UND to a 4-0 lead after one period. Kawaguchi and Mark Senden added goals in the second period with Kawaguchi and Shane Pinto completing the offensive barrage in the third period.
 
Berry labeled it as one of UND's best games since Christmas. "I think it kind of galvanized our team a little bit this weekend, playing back at home again and making that chase (for the league title),'' Berry said. 
 
Berry was pleased to see the Adams-Kawaguchi-Mismash line light up the scoreboard again. "The years have ups and downs,'' Berry said. "I'm not saying they were down. They were clicking early and it wasn't coming easy for them over the last couple of weekends.''
 
Peski came into the game with 18 total points in 116 career games before collecting his three assists Saturday night. "It doesn't happen too often, but it's nice when it does,'' Peski said. "At the end of the day, there's someone at the end of that assist who's putting the puck in the net. So kudos to those guys for really bearing down.''
 
Another key factor in the game was the defensive play of UND's shutdown line of Senden centering Smith and Gavin Hain. They held CC's Chris Wilkie, a UND transfer who is second in the nation in the goals with 17, without a point all weekend and left him with a team-worst minus-5 in the plus/minus rating in Saturday's game.'
 
Game notes: Peski, Kawaguchi, Mishmash, Adams and Kawaguchi were all a plus-4 in the plus/minus rating ... Adams led UND in shots on goal with 5 ... UND was 1-for-2 on the power play with 3 shots, CC 0-5 with 3 shots ... Named the three stars by the media in order were Kawaguchi, Peski and Adams ... Thome stopped 39 of the 40 shots he faced over the two games ... Pinto won 12 of 17 faceoffs and Weatherby 10 of 15 (and 24 of 30 for the weekend to lead UND to a 33-21 faceoff edge ... Thome (4-0-1) hasn't lost a game this season in goal ... Coach Berry improved to 13-4-1 in his career against CC.
 
Virg Foss is in his 15th season of reporting on UND home games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. He covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement from newspapers. This is his 50th season -- half a century -- of covering UND hockey.