And even that wasn't a sure thing.

The best thing that could be said about the Badgers was they were hopelessly inconsistent. The worst was that they just weren't very good.

Even their fans, among the most loyal in the land, lost interest as the Badgers' season kept stalling out. How else would one explain the thousands of empty seats during the NCAA Midwest Regional Saturday and Sunday at the Kohl Center?

The miracle, of course, was the Badgers were even invited to the NCAA tournament party after a sub-.500 season. But after getting an 11th-hour reprieve from -- take your pick -- budget-conscious tournament organizers or a computer with a big heart, they became UW's most unlikely NCAA qualifier since the Backdoor Badgers won it all in 1981.

Then an amazing thing happened. After they routed Denver in a regional semifinal Saturday and dominated North Dakota for all but a few minutes of regulation time in the final Sunday, the once-ugly Badgers started looking pretty good to you.

Just about the time you thought they had turned a corner, however, the Badgers showed for the umpteenth time this season they just couldn 't make it all the way around the bend. UW's 3-2 overtime loss to North Dakota was a microcosm of a season that just never got rolling.

"We were right there the entire season from being a great team and something always happened to bring us back," goaltender Shane Connelly said. "This was another thing. We made a huge step in these last two games, we just couldn't finish it off. We were so close."

They were closer than they thought. The Badgers outshot the Sioux and took a 2-0 lead into the third period. Unfortunately, the lead would have been more daunting for North Dakota had UW not kept hitting the same pipes Denver hit against it the night before.

Against a team with the firepower of North Dakota, failing to pad the lead was a fatal error. The Sioux scored twice in less than a minute in the third period to tie it up and UW never recovered.

"I just thought we were really riding that wave of emotion and energy that we got from the second life of getting a chance to be in the tournament and wanting to prove some people wrong," defenseman Davis Drewiske said. "We wanted to prove that we deserved to be here. ... Especially in the second period tonight, I was impressed with the way we were playing. I thought we were completely controlling the game for awhile there. I think that third goal would have been huge for us and you've got to give them all the credit in the world just for the way they battled and came back."

Give the Badgers a little credit, too, for the way they came back after most people thought they were finished. Given new life, they started to look like they did in that memorable 7-2 win at Denver Jan. 12.

"I thought when we were in Denver that Saturday night we played real well and this weekend was glimpses of that," center Ben Street said. "It's frustrating. You always want to play your best hockey at the end of the season. It's just frustrating when you feel like maybe you did enough to win and it just wasn 't enough."

Frustrating, yes, but also somewhat fitting for this UW team.