The University of Maine’s penalty-killing success rate has been among the national leaders all season long (87.9 percent efficiency, 160 for 182), but the power play has slumped of late.

The Bears have converted on only seven of its last 43 power-play attempts (16.3 percent) and that has been addressed in practice recently as Maine prepares for Saturday’s NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game against Thursday’s Michigan State-Boston University winner at the Providence Civic Center.

Maine is now operating at 26.5 percent efficiency on the power play (57 for 215) over the season.

“Sometimes we get lazy on the power play. We don’t work as hard as we should. And we try to be too perfect. We pass too much instead of shooting and going to the net,” said Maine senior center Martin Robitaille, who plays the left point on one power play unit. “We haven’t been shooting enough. We’ve also got to move the puck more quickly.”

“We can’t rely on just the one shot,” said senior right wing Randy Olson. “The goalies are good. We’ve got to get on the rebounds and try to get some garbage goals.”

“We’ve been too fancy. We’ve got to make solid plays, get the puck to the net and attack the net,” agreed senior left winger Scott Pellerin.

Olson said because the Bears were so successful on the power play earlier in the season, “teams have really been focusing on stopping our power play. Every power play has its ups and downs. You can’t expect to operate at 35 percent all season long. We’re struggling on the power play right now, but it hasn’t beaten us yet. We’ve just got to pick it up and work harder in practice on it.”

Senior left winger Scott Pellerin said teams bear down more on special teams play in the playoffs.

Sophomore defenseman Chris Imes said the departure of All-American defenseman Keith Carney has hurt the power play “because he ran the show back there. He had so much poise.”

Maine Coach Shawn Walsh is a little concerned, but pointed out that the Bears have scored timely power-play goals in recent weeks.

Maine’s game-winning goals against Providence in the final regular-season series sweep came on power plays and the Bears went three-for-six on the power play in the 7-3 Hockey East playoff semifinal win over Boston College.

“When you get into the playoffs, you play better teams,” said Walsh. “The key is scoring power-play goals when you need them the most. But we want to improve our power play and we’ve focused our attention on it.”

“The break has helped us with it,” said Pellerin. – –

Colby College senior center Derek Bettencourt was named to the ECAC Division II East First Team and Bowdoin College right wing Marcello Gentile was named the conference’s Rookie of the Year.

Bettencourt, a native of Murrysville, Pa., led the Mules in scoring for the second consecutive year with 25 goals and 22 assists. He finished his career with 121 points (57 goals, 64 assists) which placed him seventh on Colby’s all-time career points list.

“Derek has great skills,” said Colby Coach Charlie Corey. “He has Division I skills.”

Gentile, a Newton, Mass., native, racked up 14 goals and eight assists for the Polar Bears. His 14 goals were one shy of the school record for freshman set by Ron Marcellus during the 1978-79 season. Gentile played on an all-freshman line with twins Charlie (11 goals, 21 assists) and Joe Gaffney (10 & 20).

Bettencourt was joined on the first team by Middlebury forward Kent Hughes and defenseman Doug Cochran; Babson goalie Mark Kuryak; and University of Connecticut forward Bryan Krygier and defenseman Chris Potter. Hughes was the Player of the Year.

The second team was comprised of forwards Matt Robbins (Salem State), Bill Avery (Norwich), and Mike Krygier (UConn); defensemen Scott Leddy (Trinty) and Bill Innocent (UMass-Boston); and goalie Brent Truchon (Middlebury). – –

Tracey Mason Walsh, wife of Maine’s head coach and daughter of Michigan State head coach Ron Mason, was hoping that Maine and Michigan State would not be bracketed together in the East Regional. But they were.

“It’s going to be quite awkward if they play,” said Tracey, who has been through this before but not when a spot in the Final Four has been at stake. “But if they do play, I’ll obviously want Maine to win.” – –

Tracey’s father Ron feels Walsh and his Bears wound up with an “unfair situation” in the NCAA seedings by drawing the BU-Michigan State winner.

“Maine’s been the No. 1 team the whole year and they’re going to have to go up against a team that’s been ranked in the top 10 almost all year, a team that’s been as high as fourth or fifth on a regular basis,” said Mason.

“It’s a very tough draw for Shawn. We play Maine tough because we have a lot of respect for them. BU has played them tough (1-1-1) this year. It’ll be a tough battle for them. Maine still has the best team in the country and they’ve been clicking on all cylinders so they should probably win.”

Bear centers Kent Salfi (false identification, $200 fine) and Dave LaCouture (criminal mischief, $100) and right wing Steve Widmeyer (criminal mischief, $100) had their names on the police blotter in Bangor’s Third District Court recently.

Walsh said all three were disciplined for their actions, which occurred in November.

“We handled it internally,” said Walsh.