To most teams, a 4-2-2 record during a span of 17 days would represent a noteworthy accomplishment in men’s college hockey.

But the University of Maine Black Bears went 2-2-1 over the last five games, all against Hockey East opponents, and they find themselves in fourth place with 11 games remaining. All are league games. Maine tied BU Sunday night after losing Saturday night.

Maine trails third-place Northeastern by a point; second-place Boston University by four and league leader New Hampshire by six. UNH has a game in hand on Maine.

Fifth-place Boston College is two points behind Maine with a game in hand.

The Bears have next weekend off before entertaining Boston College on Jan. 28-29.

“We were disappointed with the New Hampshire game [5-4 loss 10 days ago] and BU this weekend,” said junior left wing Dan Kerluke. “But we learned some things that will help us down the line. We’d rather learn them now than later.”

Maine senior right winger and alternate captain Jim Leger agreed, saying the team was upset at having to settle for Sunday’s 3-3 tie.

“But we’ll take a lot of positives out of the weekend,” said Leger. “BU has a great team. We made some minor mistakes. We’ll get back to doing the basic things when we return.”

Leger and Kerluke both said this is a good time for a break because the Bears are mentally tired from playing what Kerluke described as a “pro schedule.”

The schedule down the stretch appears to favor the Bears, who have the fewest games left against the other four front-runners: three. New Hampshire has eight; BC and Northeastern have six apiece and BU has five.

Sophomore right wing Niko Dimitrakos, who had points in seven of his last eight games, missed the BU series with a bruised left shoulder suffered in Friday’s practice. He will probably be back for the BC series, according to Maine athletic trainer Paul Culina.

Culina said freshman right wing Chris Heisten should also be ready for BC after suffering a sprained elbow late in the second period of Sunday’s game at BU.

The status of forwards Tom Reimann (post-concussion syndrome) and Magnus Lundback (irregular heartbeat) is still up in the air.

The Bear players are confident they can put together a strong regular season stretch run.

“We may be down in the Hockey East race but I think we can make a good pull at the end and get up to second or third,” Kerluke said. “What really matters is making the national tournament. That’s our biggest goal at the moment.”

He considers the Bears “one of the best teams in the country.

“We’ve got to play with a little more defensive discipline,” he added.