Lara Smart shared the goaltending duties throughout her University of Maine women’s hockey career.

Until this season.

She has been a workhorse for Rick Filighera’s Black Bears, and she hopes to add a couple more wins to her resume beginning at 1 p.m. today when the third-seeded Black Bears take on second seed Providence College in a Hockey East semifinal at Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena.

She will enter the game with a 10-15-4 record, a 2.52 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage. She has played more than 1,750 minutes and made 852 saves.

“She’s been great,” said Providence coach and former Boston University goalie Bob Deraney. “She takes up a lot of net, she’s agile, and she has a good glove hand. She can steal a game.”

“She has been the backbone of our team,” said Maine center Andrea Steranko.

Maine will need a quality performance from Smart if the Bears are going to upset Providence and earn a spot in Sunday’s 1 p.m. championship game against the winner of Saturday’s 4 p.m. semifinal between top seed New Hampshire and fourth seed Northeastern.

Maine is looking for its first Division I playoff win.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Smart. “They’ll shoot from wherever. They shoot a lot from the point. I’m going to have to control the rebounds and cover up anything [loose].”

She feels she is playing well right now.

“I’ve been solid. I’ve controlled my rebounds a lot better this year,” said Smart.

She also said she enjoys the playoff atmosphere.

“I love pressure. It’s awesome,” said Smart, a 5-foot-11 senior from Airdrie, Alberta, who stopped 85 of 89 shots in Maine’s sweep of Connecticut to end the regular season two weeks ago.

Maine senior winger Meagan Aarts said Smart has been “unbelievable.”

“She has been the reason we’ve won some games. She got us out of some big ruts that we put ourselves in,” said Aarts.