ORONO — A few days before his scheduled home opener, University of Maine baseball coach Steve Trimper pulled on his Sidd Finch work boots and tromped out of the clubhouse into the brilliant afternoon sunshine. He looked around, chatted on a cell phone for a bit, then returned to the clubhouse.

ORONO — Josh Spearin spent the first day of spring leaping and lifting, stretching and straining, hoping and dreaming.

Back in late October and early November, when the University of Maine men’s hockey team was struggling to score a goal, much less win a game, head coach Tim Whitehead resisted the temptation to skip a weight-training session or alter his practices in hopes of a quick-fix solution.

Classmate — and roommate — Martin Ouellette took over, playing both games of a series in early November against a UMass-Lowell team then ranked 15th in the country. The Black Bears split the series, losing 2-1 and winning 4-3 in what would be their only Hockey East victory until late January, when they improbably swept Boston College, then ranked third, at Conte Forum, where they had been winless in nine previous contests.

DURHAM — Well, of course it ended with a tie. How else could such an unsettled season conclude, but with a resurgent Maine rallying to take a late lead and a desperate New Hampshire managing to hang on?

Whether the game pits Maine against New Hampshire or Colby against Bowdoin, Jim Tortorella knows a little something about northern New England hockey rivalries.