Inside Maine's long climb back to the top of college hockey

The University of Maine's Black Bears are looking to take to a new level in the NCAA hockey tournament.

The team has been in contention for a national championship in recent years .

The Alfond Arena in Orono , Maine , is packed to the rafters with 5,000 fans.

The Black Bears will play Northeastern in Friday night 's NCAA tournament opener.

Dennis "Red" Gendron was an assistant coach for Maine 's 1993 national championship team and with multiple Stanley Cups as an assistant with the New Jersey Devils organization.

The team posted back-to-back 13 -win seasons and made only one NCAA tournament appearance ( 2012 ) over the next six years .

Maine posted only three winning seasons from 2014 to 2021 , including a frustrating eight -win campaign in 2016 .

Maine reached the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden in Boston for the first time since 2012 .

The Black Bears received an at-large bid to the 2024 NCAA tournament and were placed as the 2 -seed in the Springfield Regional , where they met No. 3 seed Cornell .

Coach Ben Barr has established a culture of winning and accountability, and finding players who wanted to be a part of the program.