It’s been a long eight-year wait, but the Harvard men’s hockey team will finally return to the national spotlight tomorrow as it begins NCAA Tournament play against Maine at the Centrum Centre in Worcester. This marks Harvard’s first NCAA appearance since 1994.

Should the sixth-seeded Crimson upset the heavily favored Black Bears (23-10-7), it will play BU on Sunday. The winner of that game advances to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn.

Written off after a terrible slump to end the regular season, Harvard (15-14-4) earned an improbable automatic NCAA bid by beating Cornell last Saturday in the ECAC championship game. Sophomore forward Tyler Kolarik scored the winning goal in double-overtime for the 4-3 victory.

“I think about us winning the ECAC every day,” Kolarik said. “It’s something I’ll always remember.”

Although Harvard has now surpassed its preseason goal of reaching the ECAC final, Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said the coaching staff has worked hard to prevent the team from resting on its unexpected laurels.

“We cannot go into this game thinking we’ve achieved our season’s goals,” Mazzoleni said. “We as coaches have to be very hard on the team now.”

Kolarik said that message has gotten through to the team.

“We can’t just be happy with just making the tournament,” Kolarik said. “You never know what’s going to happen. We might never get back.”

The Crimson will likely need to play its best game of the season to upset the third-seeded Black Bears. Maine enters the tournament nearly as hot as Harvard, having gone 7-0-2 before a 3-1 loss to No. 1 New Hampshire last Saturday in the Hockey East title game.

The Black Bears also have plenty of NCAA experience. They reached the Frozen Four in 2000 and won the national title in 1999.

Maine relies on an explosive yet balanced offense that ranks third in the nation, scoring 4.2 goals per game. The speedy Black Bears feature four players with over 40 points on the season—all of them average more points per game than the leading Harvard scorers, juniors Brett Nowak and Dominic Moore.

“They’re going to pose problems for us because they’re a very high-energy transition team,” Mazzoleni said. “They just fly at you.”

Forward Colin Shields is Maine’s most dangerous scorer. He ranks second in the country with 13 power play goals his 28 total tallies is fifth overall. The Black Bears most dynamic offensive threat, however, might be defenseman Peter Metcalf. A first-team Hockey East selection, Metcalf leads all blueliners nationally in assists and is second in total points.

Harvard’s defense will face its toughest challenge all year in trying to stop Maine’s high-powered transition game. Although the Crimson blueliners have shown considerable improvement in the last few weeks, they are still prone to occasional defensive breakdowns. Two such lapses led directly to Cornell goals last week.

Maine includes a defenseman in its offensive rush, placing extra pressure on the opposing defense and creating more scoring opportunities. This system, however, leaves the Black Bears open to counterattacks, as only one defenseman remains to guard the goal. As a result, Maine has given up eight shorthanded goals this season.

In fact, the Black Bears’ major weakness might be its defensive corps, and the Crimson forwards hope to take advantage.

“We feel we’re one of the best teams in the country with our offensive zone play,” Kolarik said. “We can exploit Maine’s defensive corps.”

Harvard hopes its newly installed aggressive forechecking system will continue to frustrate opposing defenses. Harvard has had more than 30 shots on goal in all eight of its games since switching to the more aggressive forecheck late last month. In the eight games before that, the Crimson hit the 30-shot mark just once.

Maine enters the weekend with a mild goaltender controversy. All signs point to Matt Yeats to starting in net for the Black Bears. Yeats was Maine’s top goalie the previous two years, but he has posted mediocre numbers this season, going just 5-7-3 with an .885 save percentage while giving up more than three goals per game. Yeats did play well in the Hockey East tournament, however, and he has an 11-3 career postseason record.

Sitting on the bench will be first-team All- Hockey East goaltender Mike Morrison, who likely will not play despite having a much better season. Morrison is 18-3-4 this year and ranks eighth in the country in both save percentage and goals allowed. Maine’s offense has also been far more productive with Morrison in net.

Harvard has no such goaltending questions. Freshman Dov Grument-Morris has played superbly in net since taking sole possession of the starting job following his 4-0 shutout of Union. Grumet-Morris has allowed just two goals a game since becoming the full-time starter, although he has yet to face a team as talented offensively as Maine in his college career.

Harvard has managed three consecutive overtime wins despite playing just three lines most of each game. Although there is a substantial talent gap between the Crimson’s top three lines and its fourth unit, Mazzoleni said the return of junior forward Aaron Kim from a shoulder injury should allow the fourth line to see at least limited action against a deep Black Bear team.

“Our fourth line has to keep the pace going and they can’t get scored on,” Mazzoleni said. “Maine’s fourth line is all freshmen, so our line should be able to compete against them.”

The Crimson has struggled against non-conference opponents this year, especially against Hockey East competition. Harvard was outscored 18-6 in four losses to BU, Northeastern and BC—all teams that finished behind Maine in the Hockey East tournament.

Mazzoleni, however, said the Crimson’s earlier results should have no bearing on tomorrow’s game.

“As crazy as it sounds, we’re a totally different team from February,” Mazzoleni said. “Right now we’re capable of beating anyone.”