The University of Maine women’s hockey team has a mountain to climb if it’s going to earn a Hockey East tournament berth.

The Bears have just four points in league play (1-5-2), leaving them in seventh place in the eight-team league. The top four qualify for the tournament and the Bears are 10 points out of a playoff spot.

Maine, which entered last night’s game at UNH after having not played since Dec. 9, is 6-10-2 overall with seven of those losses coming at the hands of teams currently ranked in the top eight nationally.

Maine and New Hampshire, ranked third in the country, will conclude their season series this afternoon.

“We think we can definitely make a run [at a playoff spot],” said Maine senior defenseman and co-captain Kelly Law. “We’ve been in this position before. There’s a lot of season left to play.

“We actually feel pretty good about the second half. We’re excited to improve. Our focus should be more on our defensive zone and getting more production from our power plays.”

Maine has allowed 4.01 goals per game and has struggled on the special teams, converting just 13.4 percent of its power-play chances while opponents have converted 24.8 percent of their opportunities.

Interim head coach Lauren Steblen said one of their problems in the defensive zone has been puck-watching.

“We’ve been chasing the puck a little bit instead of taking the man and keeping them to the outside,” said Steblen, who added that her Bears need to reduce their penalties.

They were assessed 144 penalties for 299 minutes.

“Our players need to smarten up a little bit and move their feet [to avoid taking penalties],” said Steblen.

She feels her team can crawl back into playoff contention.

“We’ve got to win the must-win games and steal a few here and there,” said Steblen, whose team has 12 games left, all in league play.

Sophomore center Vanessa Vani leads the team in scoring with 9 goals and 13 assists. Her linemate, sophomore right wing Robyn Law (8 & 10), is next, and left wing Sonia Corriveau (10 & 7) is third.

Kelly Law (3 & 6) heads the defense corps, and sophomore Genevieve Turgeon (3-6-1, 4.27 goals-against average, .891 save percentage) got the nod in goal vs. UNH.