The irony was so obvious it created ripples of laughter between Mike Eaves and just about anyone the University of Wisconsin men's hockey coach spoke with Sunday.

When the 16-team NCAA tournament field was officially unveiled, it had the third-seeded Badgers facing second-seeded Denver in the Midwest regional semifinals at the Kohl Center Saturday.

Arguably the most pivotal moment in the UW season came during a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at Denver Jan. 11.

A last-second goal by senior winger Matthew Ford was wrongly disallowed when referee Randy Schmidt failed to properly interpret a video replay of the conversion.

That 3-2 loss created so many dynamics and affected so many aspects of the season that this NCAA assignment seems surreal.

"We bumped over and laughed about it a little bit -- the ironic nature of playing DU -- but we let that go pretty quick," Eaves said Sunday.

The ripple effect of that game continues to be felt in a variety of ways.

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod acknowledged a mistake had been made, but didn't feel it was egregious enough that he allowed Schmidt to work the second game of the series.

When Schmidt's work appeared compromised during a 7-2 victory by the Badgers the next night, Schmidt was suspended indefinitely by the league and hasn't worked a WCHA game since.

UW officials filed an unprecedented appeal of the loss, asking the Badgers be given a point in the league standings and the loss changed to a tie on their record.

The appeal was denied by a vote of WCHA faculty representatives, citing NCAA rules regarding the finality of a referee's decision.

How crucial was that one point?

It kept the Badgers (15-16-7 overall) from finishing in the top five in the league standings, sent them on the road for the opening round of the WCHA playoffs and very nearly cost them a berth in the NCAA tournament.

"We end up with one point or two points or whatever in that game, it's a completely different situation with the Pairwise," UW senior defenseman and captain Davis Drewiske said.

Had that one-goal loss been changed to a tie, the final Pairwise rankings apparently would have favored Minnesota State-Mankato, the fourth-place finisher in the WCHA, for the final at-large berth instead of Notre Dame.

"It's that straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back kind of theory that details do build empires," Eaves said. "The ramifications of that one point, in so many ways, is widespread."

With a record six WCHA teams in the NCAA field, Eaves assumed the Badgers would get a rare inter-conference matchup in the first round. At this point, it doesn't really matter who the opponent is, although it's impossible to overlook the fact the Pioneers (26-13-1) are 11-1-3 at the Kohl Center since it opened for hockey in 1998.

"It's a fresh start," Ford said. "We know what we're going to get. That's probably the biggest thing. We know how to prepare. We know what we need to do to have success against this team.

"At the beginning of the season, this is where we wanted to be. This is where we are now."