Winning at Notre Dame and Ohio State without Norris showed what the Wolverines are capable of doing moving forward. Michigan already faced an uphill climb to make it into the NCAA Tournament.
But they’ve been here before.
Josh Norris — a sophomore forward who ranks second on the Michigan hockey team in points — will miss the remainder of the season, the team announced Thursday morning.
Josh Norris and Quinn Hughes were no strangers to U20 World Juniors. It was only one year ago the sophomore forwards had both appeared in it together for Team USA, earning a bronze medal.
Returning to the scene once more — this time in Vancouver and Victoria, Ont. — they had their eyes set on gold.
Michigan coach Mel Pearson wore it behind the bench at Notre Dame Stadium on Jan. 5. As the players took off their gear and changed into their street clothes, they slipped it on as well.
“It’s a unique cap,” Pearson said. “And a unique story behind the cap.”
In 2016, Nick Blankenburg — then 18 years old and now a freshman at Michigan — was a forward on that team, but he had a hard time scoring. Burke decided to try Blankenburg at defense for the first time in his life.
Entering the new year, compared to the first half of the season, there was a new Lavigne. A goaltender who practiced hard, competed hard and gave Michigan the opportunity to win. But for Lavigne and the coaching staff, it was more of the same.
For a moment, it looked like Jimmy Lambert’s first goal of his Michigan hockey career might be a game-winner. But just 28 seconds later, the Buckeyes (13-5-4, 6-3-3-2) tied it up at the other end of the ice when defenseman Wyatt Ege found twine for his first tally of the season.
The Buckeyes added an empty-netter with 24.1 seconds remaining to ice the game and win, 4-2.
With their backs to the wall, against a team that beat them four times last year, the Wolverines did more than fight back.
Michigan killed the penalty, and after junior forward Jake Slaker scored minutes later to tie the game, it never looked back. At the end of the day, Slaker and the Wolverines walked off the ice with a 2-1 win over the Buckeyes.
The cards seemed to be set for Michigan to get back on track and make a run through the second half of the season, just as it did last year, when the Wolverines swept No. 9 Minnesota in the second weekend of the second half and ended up in the Frozen Four.
And then Merrimack happened.
“If you have it even around the net — and we missed the net a lot — they blocked a lot of shots, but we missed the net a lot. Over the net, wide on greater scoring opportunities. We’re not a gifted team as far as scoring goes. We have to really work for our goals.”