ST. PAUL, Minn. – A season that has spanned nearly seven months will all boil down to 60 minutes on Thursday afternoon at the St. Paul Civic Center. There could be another 60 minutes. There may not be.

The University of Maine’s 32-8-2 Black Bears will look to go one step further than any Black Bear athletic team ever has when they face off against the hottest team in the country, Northern Michigan, in Thursday’s 3 p.m. NCAA Tournament semifinal.

A win would send Maine into Saturday night’s national championship gameagainst the winner of the Thursday night Boston University-Clarkson semifinal.

Northern Michigan is 35-5-4 in countable NCAA games and is 22-0-2 in its last 24 games.

As always for Maine, defense will be the key and that is magnified by the fact Northern Michigan is the nation’s top scoring team with 270 goals.

The catalysts for NMU have been their four centers, all of whom have at least 16 goals and 39 points. They are Hobey Baker Award finalist Scott Beattie, Dallas Drake, Dean Antos and Mark Beaufait. They have combined for 100 goals and 125 assists.

“The centers are the keys to their teams and we’ve got to pay attention to them,” said Maine Coach Shawn Walsh.

“Their forwards are really crafty and they get their defense involved in the offense,” said Maine junior defenseman Keith Carney. “Having played Minnesota last weekend will help because they are similar teams.”

“We’ve got to play the body all the time. We can’t afford to get mesmerized by the puck,” said senior defenseman Brian Straub. “We had over 100 hits when we played them earlier this season and we’ve got to do that again.”

Maine beat Northern Michigan 4-1 and 4-2 in Portland and Orono, respectively, back in November. That is the only time this season NMU has been held to two goals or less in two successive games.

“When we do a good job defensively, we usually get enough goals to win,” said Walsh.

NMU Coach Rick Comley, who had to bus with his team to St. Paul Wednesday night after having their flight fogged in from Marquette, Mich., said there won’t be a revenge motive for his team.

“We have a great deal of respect for Maine,” said Comley. “Roy and Montgomery are as good as any forwards in the country and Carney is as good a defenseman as there is. It should be a great game.”

Maine freshman goalie Mike Dunham will get the nod and is playing some of his best hockey of the season. Dunham is 4-0 in his last four starts with a 1.77 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. He made 29 saves in the 4-1 win over NMU on Nov. 23 in Portland.

He is coming off a superb 27-save 4-0 shutout win over Minnesota in the quarterfinals.

“I feel a lot better now after the Minnesota game,” said Dunham. “I was a little nervous in that game until I faced my first shot. Northern Michigan has a great team but the fact we were able to beat them is in the back of my mind.”

Dunham said his teammates have played very well defensively lately and that has been a major ingredient in his performance.

Maine has held its opponents to three goals or less 11 times over the past 14 games.

Dunham will be opposed by NMU senior Bill Pye.

Offensively, Maine will have to work hard for its scoring chances because the Wildcats have held their opponents to three goals or less 15 times over the past 18 games.

The high-powered line of Jim Montgomery between Brian Downey and Jean-Yves Roy features Maine’s three leading scorers.

“The playoffs are a new season,” said Downey. “You don’t get much time with the puck. You’ve got to move to space more, move the puck more quickly and take the shots when you get them. Pye is the type of goalie who likes to come way out so we’ve got to do things like fake a shot and go around him.”

“Our line hadn’t done much for three or four games and we were getting frustrated but we played really well in the Minnesota series and that will help us,” added Downey.

“In the playoffs, nobody wants to take (offensive) chances. Everybody tries to play good defense,” said Hobey Baker finalist Roy. “So when you get a scoring chance, you don’t want to miss because you may not get that chance again. You see more grinders getting goals in the playoffs (because of the added emphasis on defense and shutting down the top offensive players).”

Roy had two goals in the first NMU game and then was shadowed and held pointless by NMU’s Darryl Plandowski in the second game.

“If he shadows me again, I’ll try to open up some space for my linemates or set a pick if another one of their players is near me,” said Roy. “Or I might be able to catch him flat footed. But I can’t get frustrated and take stupid penalties. I don’t care if I don’t get a point as long as we win.”‘

“We’ve got to be patient,” said Montgomery. “We’ll get our scoring chances.”

The linemates also said they will concentrate on defense and let the offense take care of itself.