Boston College coach Jerry York is used to facing the University of Maine in the NCAA Tournament.

Thursday’s 6 p.m. Frozen Four semifinal at the FleetCenter in Boston will be the seventh time a York-coached team has met Maine in the NCAA Tournament. Maine holds a 5-1 edge over York-coached teams.

When York was the coach at Bowling Green (Ohio), Maine beat his visiting Falcons in a two-games, total-goals series in 1988 (a combined 9-4) and swept a best-of-three series 5-3, 5-0 in 1990 (aggregate 9-4).

Maine beat his Boston College team 2-1 in overtime in the Frozen Four en route to winning the national championship in 1999 and BC returned the favor 3-1 in the quarterfinals in 2001 and the Eagles went on to claim their first NCAA title since 1948-49.

“Maine’s program has a number of trademarks from my vantage point,” said York. “They have always been extremely well-coached. They have an outstanding record of recruiting top-end players to their campus. They’ve had their share of marquee players. And they’ve always had a good work ethic and team concept.

“You need all three and Maine is one of the programs that has all three,” said the classy York.

He said facing Maine in the NCAA Tournament or in a Hockey East playoff game “seems to bring out the very best in both teams.”

Under York, the Eagles have met the Black Bears in five Hockey East tourney games with the Bears holding a 3-2 edge. Maine has won the last three including a 2-1 triumph in the 1999-2000 HE championship game.

BC had upended Maine 3-2 in the 1997-98 league championship game.

York said the current Maine team “is the surprise of the [Frozen Four] field.

“When you consider their graduation losses, Tim [head coach Whitehead] has done a tremendous job making his team better than last year’s,” said York. “We both have very good teams and both teams are deep.”

This season, BC defeated Maine in Boston 4-1, but the Bears swept the Eagles in Orono 3-0 and 4-3.

WCHA rivals Minnesota-Duluth and Denver will square off in the noon national semifinal Thursday.

Maine seeks better power play

Whitehead said he and assistants Grant Standbrook, Campbell Blair and Guy Perron will do some brainstorming to try to improve the power play, which has been a dismal 2-for-31 in the playoffs.

“We’re going to take a good look at it again,” said Whitehead. “We’ve done a very good job getting the puck into the [offensive] zone and keeping it in. But we’ve got to move the puck quicker in the zone and we’ve got to do a better job getting the puck to the front of the net. We’ve been getting a lot of shots blocked.”

Wisconsin blocked 24 shots in Maine’s 2-1 overtime victory in the NCAA Eastern Regional final last week and many of those came on the Bear power play.

Maine managed just two shots on goal on seven power- play opportunities.

Sophomore defenseman and assistant captain Jeff Mushaluk pointed out that Whitehead e-mailed all the players this week to get some “opinions on how to improve the power play.”

Sophomore center Derek Damon, a member of one of the two power-play units, said it has been a matter of poor execution with the man advantage.

“It’s our fault. We haven’t been able to get our shots through. I think everyone is tired because we’ve played a lot of hockey this past month,” said Damon. “It’s good having this break. We’ll have a chance to re-energize mentally and physically the guys on the power play will be able to focus on what we have to do to get the job done.”

He said Harvard and Wisconsin “packed it in and really blocked shots. That’s something we weren’t used to. A lot of teams in Hockey East pressure you hard.”

Freshman center Michel Leveille said the Bears have to wrist their shots through to the net from the point and also be prepared to work the puck down low.

“We’ve got to do give-and-go’s down low and get some movement going,” said Leveille.

Senior right wing Colin Shields said Maine has been wasting too many shots.

“When you get your shots blocked or you miss the net, you give up possession of the puck,” he said. “We need to keep things simple. We need to move the puck around and get ourselves moving in order to try to get good shots.”

Maine’s power play is operating at 16.5 percent (35-for-212).

April Fool’s pranks a success

The Black Bears pulled an April Fool’s Day joke on Whitehead and assistant Grant Standbrook.

When Whitehead blew his whistle to bring the players together after they stretched, Maine senior left wing and captain Todd Jackson and All-Hockey East first-team goalie Jimmy Howard collided as they skated toward him.

Both fell and faked writhing in pain as Howard screamed about his knee, the one which sidelined him for five weeks earlier this season. Jackson was motionless on the ice.

Trainer Mark Badurak, who was also in on the prank, ran to their aid.

Assistant Campbell Blair, also in on the joke, said Whitehead and Standbrook had a “very concerned” look on their faces.

Those looks of concern turned into howls of laughter when both players jumped to their feet.

“It was pretty funny,” said Jackson.

“That was a well-orchestrated one right there,” said junior right wing John Ronan. “I think we scared coach a little more than he wanted. It was funny, though.”