The University of Maine’s Black Bear hockey team has battled its way back into NCAA Tournament contention with its 7-1-1 regular season finish.

But Maine coach Shawn Walsh and his players know there is still a lot of work to be done in order to secure their 11th NCAA bid in Walsh’s 17 seasons.

That work begins Thursday night in their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series opener against a scrappy seventh-seeded Northeastern University team that has enjoyed its share of success at the Alfond Arena.

In fact, the teams are 4-4-4 over the last 12 meetings in Orono.

Maine is 17-10-7 overall and its 12-7-5 record in Hockey East was good enough for second place. The Bears actually finished in a tie with Providence, but their 4-2, 5-2 sweep of the Friars this past weekend gave them the tie-breaker over Providence via a 2-1 series win. Providence had won an earlier game in Providence 5-3.

“This is the most satisfying second-place finish I’ve had in my 17 years,” said Walsh whose Bears looked like anything but a second place team eight games ago when they were 5-6-4 in league play.

“We’ve started to come together like we thought we could,” said junior defenseman and co-captain Doug Janik. “We’ve been playing the kind of team defense we’ve been stressing all year and we’ve started to put the puck in the net a little bit.”

Walsh said, “I like the way we’re playing now. Everybody is contributing. Every line has a guy with at least eight goals. We’re healthy and we’re confident.”

During Maine’s 7-1-1 stretch, they have scored 33 goals and allowed 19.

But they have surrendered only 12 even-strength goals.

“We got our health back; we got some confidence after we beat New Hampshire [3-2 in overtime on Feb. 4] and some pieces to the puzzle fell together like the [Robert] Liscak and [Marty] Kariya lines,” said Walsh.

He was referring to the checking line of Robert Liscak between Kevin Clauson and Todd Jackson and the first line of Kariya between converted defenseman Michael Schutte and right wing Matthias Trattnig.

Schutte has nine goals and five assists over the last seven games; Kariya has four goals and eight assists in that span and Liscak has five goals and two assists over the last eight games.

Maine has won four games after trailing in the third period and has given up only four third-period goals in the 7-1-1 stretch.

“We’re a more mature team now and we know how to play with a lead,” said senior defenseman and co-captain A.J. Begg.

In sizing up the NCAA Tournament, Walsh feels six teams are already in and two more spots will go to the ECAC and MAAC Tournament champions.

“We’re right on the bubble and there are nine or 10 fighting for the other four spots including ourselves, New Hampshire, Providence, Nebraska-Omaha, Western Michigan and the winner of the WCHA series between Denver and Wisconsin,” said Walsh.

If Maine doesn’t defend its Hockey East tourney title, the Bears’ NCAA tournament chances would be significantly damaged if there were surprise tournament champs (i.e. UMass-Lowell in Hockey East).

But that’s the furthest thing from Walsh and his players’ minds right now.

It’s how to get past former Maine assistant Bruce Crowder’s enigmatic Northeastern team that is 13-17-4, 7-13-4 in Hockey East.

“They are a worthy opponent. Our league has the best parity in the country,” said Walsh. “I thought in November that Northeastern was one of the best three or four teams in our league. For whatever reason, they haven’t finished that way. They’re really dangerous.

“They are very physical and they have one line that is on fire,” said Walsh referring to Hockey Easter Player of the Month (February) Graig Mischler between Mike Ryan and Willie Levesque.

The trio has a combined 99 points on 40 goals and 59 assists. However, Ryan will miss the Thursday night opener after receiving a butt-ending major and game disqualification in a 6-2 home loss to UMass-Lowell on Saturday.

Ryan leads the Huskies in goals with 17 and game-winners with four.

“They’re one of the toughest teams in the league,” said Janik. “Every time we play them, they give us problems. They have a lot of hard-working players, players who can put the puck in the net, and great goaltending. It should be a great series. You have to be prepared to work for 60 minutes when you play them.”