After finishing as the national runner-up in John Gasparini's first year as head coach, North Dakota was hoping to continue their renaissance after a decade of futility.

UND sandwiched an exhibition game against the eventual gold-medalist US National Team between their series against the Golden Gophers and the Bulldogs, though in the later set the Fighting Sioux could only manage a split.

After the poor road trip UND played their third national team of the season, finally managing to take town an Olympic squad, albeit the one that would finish dead-last at the 1980 winter games.

With the top seed, North Dakota played host to Michigan State and avenged their early-season loss with a comfortable 8–1 win in the first game.

North Dakota won their second consecutive WCHA title and fourth overall and received the top western seed for the NCAA tournament.

Doug Smail would open the scoring just before the mid-point of the first period but shortly thereafter leading scorer and team captain Mark Taylor would be knocked out of the game with an injury.

Doug Smail won the tournament MOP for his nearly single-handed victory in the championship game and was joined on the All-Tournament team by Phil Sykes and Marc Chorney.