You're comparing basketball to hockey....
The NCAA Hockey Tournament is the biggest crap shoot out of the 4 major sports. The 2019 championship Duluth won, they got a goal late to tie Bowling Green and beat them in OT in the first round. In 2018 they needed help to sneak in the tournament and then bounced Mankato in OT in the first round and then went on for 3 consecutive 2-1 wins. One bad bounce in each of those years and we aren't having this discussion that Sandelin is the savior. My point is not always the best or most talented team wins in the college hockey playoff format. Look at UND 2010-2011 team had 32 wins, third most at the time in program history, outshot Michigan 2 to 1 in the frozen four and ran into a hot goalie.
UMD is dumpster fire with other issues off the ice. I would much rather be a Sioux fan...