The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, January 18, 2019 — 7

I

mitation is the sincerest 
form of flattery, so goes the 
saying.
The Michigan hockey team 
currently finds itself in the mid-
dle of the pack. 
Five points from 
the top of the 
Big Ten and, 
likewise, five 
points from the 
bottom. Sit-
ting at 27th in 
the Pairwise 
rankings, the 
Wolverines will 
need all hands 
on deck to make 
a postseason push.
Last season, Michigan was 
reeling heading into the second 
half of the season. They were 
well out of the NCAA Tourna-
ment picture and a birth in the 
tournament seemed improbable.
And as if this season couldn’t 
get any more similar to last sea-
son, the Wolverines are losing 
one of their top offensive threats 
to an injury sustained in the 
World Junior Championship.
Again.
After Tuesday’s practice this 
week, Michigan hockey coach 
Mel Pearson said he’s a “glass-
half-full kind of guy.” Perhaps 
his mind was already on the 
impending absence of his star 
forward, Josh Norris. Moving 
forward, the 
team will have to 
employ that sort 
of mentality.
The news 
wasn’t officially 
released until 
this morning: 
Norris will 
undergo surgery 
and miss the 
remainder of the 
season with an 
undisclosed injury.
The sophomore is second on 
the team in points and tied for 
first in goals despite missing the 
past six games. He is arguably 
the team’s best pure scorer and 
makes a difference every time 

he steps on the ice –– see Nor-
ris’ performance against Lake 
Superior State. He was having a 
breakout season: Norris eclipsed 
his goal total from last season 
and sits just four points behind 
his freshman year’s point total 
in less than half as many games 
played.
And now, the Wolverines 
must prepare for life without 
Norris. But don’t panic –– Mich-
igan has been here before.
Last season, then-sophomore 
forward Will Lockwood missed 
the second half of the season 
after suffering a left shoulder 
injury in an outdoor game 
against Canada while repre-
senting Team USA. He was a 
key offensive contributor while 
healthy in his first two seasons 
with the Wolverines. In 16 
games last season, he tallied 
four goals and seven assists. As a 
freshman, he finished second on 
the team in points with 20.
“There’s just a lot of scary 
similarities with this year and 
last year,” said junior forward 
Nick Pastujov. “You lose a guy 
in World Juniors, we come back 
after Christmas with a couple 
big wins against Ohio State and 
Notre Dame this year compared 
to a couple wins against Notre 
Dame last year.”
Michigan’s season has been so 
similar to last season already, it’s 
almost humor-
ous.
So, if there is 
any silver lining, 
many of the lead-
ers on the team 
have experienced 
what it’s like to 
find success after 
losing one of 
their top offen-
sive weapons.
“I think one 
of the main teaching tools you 
get off of it is that there’s still a 
lot of season left,” Pearson said 
before today’s practice on the 
lessons learned from last sea-
son’s experience. “The team still 
can have success even though 

you might not have one of your 
main characters involved, you 
can still have a rewarding sea-
son, and that you can still reach 
your goals.”
It’s almost as though the 
Wolverines this 
season are inad-
vertently paying 
homage to last 
season’s roller 
coaster. Some 
of the similari-
ties –– such as 
the injuries 
–– are out of the 
team’s control 
and, rather, are 
a result of poor 
luck. But others –– erratic goal-
tending amplified by the team’s 
mediocrity through the halfway 
point of the season and signa-
ture conference wins early in 
the second half –– are a result 
of player performance and give 

fans and team members, alike, a 
sense of déjà vu.
“We went through it last year, 
I guess that’s the other thing 
that we can look back upon,” 
Pearson said. “It’s a little déjà 
vu, same situa-
tion. We have a 
player go to the 
World Juniors, 
gets hurt, out for 
the year. We’ve 
seen this act 
before, and we’re 
just gonna have 
to follow the 
same script this 
year.”
Consider it an 
impromptu encore of sorts.
If there is one form of consis-
tency Michigan has shown this 
season, it is found in inadver-
tently following that same script 
from last year. Once again, it is 
losing one of its “main charac-

ters,” as Pearson put it, for the 
second half of the season.
And that script that Pearson 
hopes to follow was a collec-
tive effort. Last season, then-
freshman forward Jack Becker 
increased his point total from 
zero to eight in the second half 
of the season. Another player 
who must continue to make an 
impact this season is junior for-
ward Nick Pastujov. He is cur-
rently tied with Norris for the 
most goals on the team — more 
than doubling his goal total from 
last season — and has appeared 
on the top line alongside Lock-
wood in the absence of Norris.
“I think all four lines need 
to kind of dial it in like we did 
last year where coach could 
kind of put out any line against 
any matchup,” Pastujov said. “I 
think all the lines need to kind 
of step up there.
“So, I think it’s just one of 

those things where we have 
to stay on the right path, don’t 
really get too discouraged about 
it. We’ve seen what we can do 
when we play good teams. I real-
ly don’t think there’s no reason 
we can’t make the same run we 
did last year.”
Winning at Notre Dame 
and Ohio State without Norris 
showed what the Wolverines 
are capable of doing moving for-
ward. Michigan already faced an 
uphill climb to make it into the 
NCAA Tournament.
But they’ve been here before.
“We don’t know, we don’t 
know what the ending is going 
to be,” Pearson said. “We have 
a choice to make sure we do 
everything we can to make it a 
storybook ending.”

Cazares can be reached 

at jcazares@umich.edu or @

jcazares98 via Twitter.

Behind Enemy Lines: The Daily sits down with Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ

On Saturday, the Michigan 
men’s basketball team (17-0 
overall, 6-0 Big Ten) will face 
one of its biggest challenges 
in Big Ten play when it takes 
on Wisconsin (11-6, 3-3) at the 
Kohl Center in Madison.
The Badgers were among 
the conference’s 
most impressive 
teams 
early 
in the season, 
notching 
non-
conference wins 
over Oklahoma 
and 
North 
Carolina 
State, 
and 
opening 
Big 
Ten 
play 
with a win at 
Iowa. They have 
encountered a rough stretch 
since 
then, 
dropping 
their 
final game of 2018 to Western 
Kentucky before losing three 
of four to start the new year 
— 
including 
home 
losses 
to 
Minnesota 
and 
Purdue. 
They also fell just short in a 
comeback attempt at No. 19 
Maryland on Monday.
Still, though, it’s a marked 

improvement from last season 
for Wisconsin, who went 15-18 
in 2017-18 and missed the 
NCAA Tournament for the first 
time in 20 years. If the Badgers 
return to postseason play this 
season, it will be on the back 
of fifth-year senior forward 
Ethan Happ, a two-time All-
Big Ten selection. The Daily 
sat down with Happ at Big Ten 
Media 
Day 
in 
October.
The 
Michigan 
Daily: Is there 
a 
different 
attitude in the 
team this year 
coming off the 
down year than 
there was last 
year or the year 
before that?
Ethan Happ: Yeah, we know 
how far away we were. It’s not 
like we were right there at the 
NCAA tournament mark, we 
were far away, and we know 
how much we have to improve. 
And last year, it’s not like 
we expected to be good, but 
we almost took for granted 
the little things that made 
Wisconsin so good every year, 

year in and year out. So, I think 
this year, we’re not taking 
anything for granted and we’re 
just gonna grind in practice and 
try to make the season the best 
one that we’ve had in a while.
TMD: So how do you close 
that bigger gap between where 
you were last year compared to 
the years before that?
Happ: Defensively is the 
biggest thing. You could tell, for 
the last five years or whatever, 
we were a great defensive 
team, except for last year. Even 
within the season, the whole 
first half of the season, we 
weren’t good. Then, we got a 
little bit better, and then when 
we started actually winning 
games toward the end of the 
year, that’s when we really 
locked in and became a pretty 
good defensive team. So that’s 
just a major — it goes hand in 
hand with us being in the win 
column more often.
TMD: How has the program 
changed since the first half of 
your freshman year when Bo 
Ryan was here?
Happ: The program itself 
hasn’t changed. We still have 
the same principles, the same 
selfless attitude that you need 

in any Wisconsin program. 
But there are differences from 
coach to coach. But I think the 
main thing is with the players, 
that 
we 
just 
want to preserve 
the 
culture 
that’s 
been 
at 
Wisconsin. 
To 
answer 
your 
question, I don’t 
think there has 
been a lot of 
change. We just 
need to get back 
to 
where 
we 
have been.
TMD: 
What 
led you to eventually take your 
name out of the NBA draft last 
year?
Happ: A couple of things. 

One, the feedback I got from 
teams, they thought I’d benefit 
from another year. But also, 
just the way we ended last 
season, I didn’t 
want that to be 
my last season 
at 
Wisconsin. 
So hopefully we 
end this on a lot 
better note and 
go out the right 
way.
TMD: 
What 
feedback 
did 
they give you?
Happ: 
The 
most unanimous 
things 
were 
free 
throw 
percentage has to improve and 
then, being able to space the 
floor with, like, a 15-foot jump 

shot. Those are big things for 
teams to move me higher up 
on their boards. They said I 
was an elite ball handler for 
my side, finisher, passer. They 
just need to see that to move up 
higher on their boards.
TMD: Have you used that 
feedback to help you mentor 
the younger guys on the team 
on what NBA teams are looking 
for?
Happ: Not especially on 
what NBA teams are looking 
for. I’m just more putting the 
NBA in the background right 
now, just trying to focus on 
how Wisconsin can be the best 
team. Luckily, there are things 
that can be mutually beneficial 
for myself making it to the next 
level, but also for Wisconsin.

Michigan has been here before

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore forward Josh Norris’ injury at World Juniors parallels that of fellow forward Will Lockwood last season for the Michigan hockey team.

“All four lines 
need to kind of 
dial it in like we 
did last year.”

“You can 
still have a 
rewarding 
season.”

JORGE
CAZARES

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Wisconsin fifth-year senior forward Ethan Happ is averaging 19.4 points per game, ranking second in the Big Ten.

“We almost 
took for 
granted the 
little things.”

“I’m just more 
putting the 
NBA in the 
background.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer