The University of Maine men’s hockey team has dug itself a hole in its quest to earn its seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.

Its 10-7-2 record and grueling end-of-the-season schedule may force the Black Bears to make a significant playoff run to ensure a berth.

Maine coach Tim Whitehead and the players are cognizant of the task at hand and will enter the second half of the season in a positive frame of mind.

The Bears went 4-1-2 in their last seven games, but Harvard snapped their six-game unbeaten streak last Saturday.

“Our record isn’t where we want it to be. But we’re not in that bad a shape in Hockey East [6-3-1],” said senior right wing John Ronan. “We’ve found our identity. We’re a hardworking team and that’s what we have to do to be successful.”

Not making the NCAA Tournament is a foreign concept to Ronan, who has played in two NCAA championship games.

“I can’t imagine not being in the NCAA Tournament. Call it being spoiled based on being here and the success we’ve had in my three years. Not making the NCAA Tournament and not making a run [at the national championship] would be a major disappointment,” said Ronan.

Whitehead acknowledged that “we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves.

“We’ve made a lot of strides in quite a few areas. We’re generating a lot more scoring chances and we haven’t sacrificed defense to do it. But, as the Harvard game pointed out, we need help in very specific areas: the power play, our ability to defend the front of our net and our ability to get to the front of the opponents’ net for second and third chances,” said Whitehead.

Ronan said the Harvard game could serve as a valuable lesson.

“I think we’re going to look back on that game and realize we learned a lot from it,” Ronan said. “As forwards, we’re going to have to do what they did: get to the net front and take them any way we can get them.

“Defensively, we’re going to have to prevent goals like Harvard did with us. They did a good job boxing us out and not letting us get that second shot.”

Whitehead said Maine also must do a better job getting the puck on net from the point, particularly on the power play, which is operating at 14.4 percent, including just one goal in its last 25 chances.

“I wish I knew [what was wrong with it],” said sophomore defenseman Mike Lundin. “As a defenseman, we’ve got to [find a way to] keep getting our shots through and the forwards are going to have to keep screening the goalie and stay in the third circle [between the faceoff circles in the low slot].”

Ronan added that they’ve got to “find the right guys to work together and keep it simple. There’s no sense trying to tic-tac-toe [passes] to anybody out there. We might as well just throw it to the net.”

The bottom line is, the Bears are a hardworking team with some talent rather than a talented team that works hard.

With the possible exception of goaltender Jimmy Howard, there probably won’t be a Maine player on any all-league or all-rookie teams.

So they are going to have to do the little things (i.e. staying out of the penalty box) consistently to string together wins.

Their 2.21 goals-against average is 10th best in the nation and their 3.26 goals per game are 16th best. Their penalty-killing is sixth best (88.5 percent).

Maine will need its veterans to continue to elevate their games a notch in the second half and the young players to continue their improvement and be able to take on more prominent roles.

Over the last five games, junior center Derek Damon and junior right wing and linemate Greg Moore have combined for only one goal. They are Maine’s top two goal scorers with 10 and seven, respectively.

They have played well in other areas and the rest may do them some good.

Junior center Jon Jankus, the second-leading point-producer with 14 (four goals, 10 assists) behind Damon’s 17 points, hasn’t scored a goal in 10 games and he and sophomore center and Hockey East Rookie of the Year Michel Leveille should become more prominent. Leveille missed six games with a separated shoulder.

Jankus is the plus-minus leader at plus-10 and simply needs to bury more pucks.

Right wings Brent Shepheard (7 goals, 6 assists) and Keith Johnson (2 & 1) and left wing Josh Soares (5 & 6), all sophomores, and junior defenseman Steve Mullin (0 & 3) have been the most pleasant surprises. Seniors Ronan (6 & 6) and Ben Murphy (2 & 6) have exceeded expectations although Murphy missed five games with a separated shoulder.

There is a lot of talent in the freshman class with wingers Rob Bellamy, Wes Clark, Billy Ryan and Keenan Hopson, defensemen Bret Tyler and Tim Maxwell and goalie Matt Lundin making contributions.

“I expect a few of the freshmen to emerge and make significant contributions down the stretch like [center] Mike Hamilton did last year,” said Whitehead, who usually has at least 10 freshmen and sophomores in the lineup.

But they also have parts of their games they need to work on.

Whitehead has a deep team with interchangeable parts and how he and his staff utilize the players in the second half will be vital.

“We know what everybody brings to the table now,” said Ronan. “All of the roles will be more defined.”

“We’re going to have some real good players who won’t be in the lineup,” Mike Lundin said. “The depth we have can only help us down the stretch. Coach will have the ability to make decisions [on personnel] that other teams may not have.”

Maine finishes with six of its last eight league games on the road, including stops at New Hampshire and Boston College, so it would behoove them to have a productive stretch before February.