I will touch the on-ice stuff: They never could get to the next level because they always found a way to stub their toes in non-conference or against Mankato or St. Cloud once. The fact that they had a world class goalie in net for 4 years and only got 1 NCAA ticket out of it was terrible.
That triple OT against the U was the turning point. UND buries a winner instead and they have a banner (lets be real, they get past the Gophers and they are winning it). Of course that year they were lucky to make the NCAAs because they stubbed their toes almost one too many times (Parizak OT winner against BSU saved their season).