The program was disbanded for about six weeks in 2011 when the interim school president, Malcolm Portera, heeded a consultant’s recommendation. It was revived through a grass-roots campaign by supporters and the hiring of Robert A. Altenkirch as university president. Altenkirch held a similar position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, where he was also the chairman of a nonprofit group that oversaw financing for the construction of the Devils’ arena.

One of the first calls Altenkirch took at his new university was from the Devils’ president, Lou Lamoriello, who wondered about the Chargers’ fate. More appeals, backed by some $500,000 in pledges, persuaded Altenkirch to resurrect the team, though not before five players elected to transfer.

Forward Alex Allan was one day from joining the exodus when the team was saved. Last week, he expressed no regrets about staying at an institution that, while growing up in Canada, he “had no idea” existed.

The next step was landing in a league amid widespread realignment caused by the formation of the Big Ten hockey conference. The only choice was the W.C.H.A. despite a daunting travel budget. The long haul to Fairbanks alone cost $49,000, and Corbett said the tab for mushing twice to Alaska equaled an entire season’s costs for some programs.

Athletic Director E. J. Brophy explained last year’s hurried move to the W.C.H.A. in mixed metaphors, saying that the Chargers could not afford to be left standing in musical chairs when the realignment band stopped playing and that they had to leap onto the rear of the train as it left the station.

No league, he said, was no option: “We trudged through the wilderness as an independent, which is difficult, especially for an outlier like we are.”