UMaine players celebrate a goal against Boston University on Nov. 15 at Alfond Arena. The fifth-ranked Black Bears haven’t lost at home this season and have a seven-game unbeaten streak going into the Christmas break. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Catch your breath, Black Bears fans. While the University of Maine men’s hockey team is off to its best start in two decades, the season is going on pause for the holidays.

The Black Bears are 12-2-2 and in first place in Hockey East. That’s the team’s best record at the break since the 2003-04 season, when it was 13-2-1. That season, Maine made it all the way to the national championship game.

When the season resumes on Dec. 29 at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena against Bentley, it’s the first of 18 games left in the regular season. If things continue as they have for the Black Bears, they’ll easily earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. That would give Maine back-to-back tournament appearances for the first time since it advanced to the tournament nine straight seasons from 1999 through 2007.

“I think we all need a break to get away from the game. I know we’re playing well right now, but I think it will only give us that energy boost, refresh the mental going into the second half,” said Harrison Scott, who leads the Black Bears in scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points. “I mean, we’ve been here for five months. It’s a well-earned little week off.”

For Coach Ben Barr and his team, it’s nothing but a good start. The job is nowhere close to complete.

“Obviously, the record is fine. We’re not going in thinking we’ve made (the tournament), because obviously we haven’t,” Barr said after Sunday’s 4-2 win over Stonehill.

By any metric, the Black Bears are one of the best teams in the country. Maine leads the nation in scoring margin – 2.38 goals per game. The Black Bears are sixth in the nation in power-play percentage at.282 (20 for 71) and 12th in penalty kill percentage (.870, 7 for 54). They’re 10th in faceoff win percentage (.538), second in scoring defense (1.62 goals per game), and third in scoring (four goals per game).

The Black Bears are facing challenges that don’t show up in the stat lines, at least not yet. First, how will they handle playing without co-captain Lynden Breen for an extended time. Breen suffered a lower body injury in the Nov. 30 win at RPI. He had surgery last Friday, and the hope is the senior can return later this season. The injury came just as Breen was heating up. Minutes before he went down, Breen completed his first hat trick of the season. In his last three games before the injury, Breen had four goals and three assists.

“He’s a heart-and-soul guy for us. He’s been here the whole way with me, my roommate. It breaks your heart to see him out, but it’s also inspirational how he’s handling it, and the support we’re giving him and he’s giving us, too,” said defenseman David Breazeale, Maine’s other captain. “On and off the ice, you can’t really replace it … But guys are going to have to step up, you know? Everybody’s going to have to find a bigger role, because that’s a big spot to fill for us. We’ll hold down the fort until he gets back.”

Along with Breen, defenseman Brandon Holt (two goals, 11 assists) missed the last four games because of an injury. Barr said the hope is Holt will be able to play against Bentley in a few weeks.

Like Breen before his injury, wing Josh Nadeau is also heating up. Nadeau was Maine’s second-leading scorer last season, with 18 goals and 27 assists in 37 games. After a slow start to this season, Nadeau has been back in form recently, with eight points in his last five games. Nadeau now has five goals and eight assists in 15 games, approaching the point per game pace he’s more than capable of.

“I think it’s just putting the work in in practice, working hard, and when you work hard you get things done,” Nadeau said.

Albin Boija has helped UMaine get off to a 12-2-2 start this season. The sophomore is ranked fourth in the country in goals-against average (1.53). Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Sophomore goalie Albin Boija has been one of the top netminders in the country and is ranked fourth in goals-against average (1.53) and 14th in save percentage (.932). Sunday’s game against Stonehill was the first time he didn’t play this season. There’s no reason to think Boija will be anything but solid the rest of the season.

Across the board, though, the Black Bears are looking for more consistency and maturity, Breazeale said.

“Understanding when the play’s not there, we’ve got to cut our losses and chip it in and then go to work. At the end of the day, when we’re playing a simple, fast game, putting pucks in behind, breaking out fast, that’s when we’re most effective,” Breazeale said. “We can grind teams down below the top of the circle. We’ve got to stick to that and continue to raise the standard.”

Barr has seen enough from his team to know it still has a lot of work to do to be good enough to compete for a national championship in April. Last season, the Black Bears lost their final two games of the regular season, in the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament to Boston University, and again in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Cornell. That’s what Barr sees when his team makes mistakes like the ones that allowed Boston College to a erase a late two-goal deficit and rally for a 3-2 win on Nov. 8. It’s what he sees when the Black Bears make mistakes in the final minute against Boston University, and a one-goal lead turns into a tie (shootout loss in the Hockey East standings).

The little things lead to those big breakdowns, and they lead to a summer stewing over losses. Maine’s remaining 18 regular-season games include six games against opponents currently ranked in the top 10 of the USCHO.com poll, and nine more against teams receiving votes in that poll. The schedule does the Black Bears no favors.

“We’ve got to be able to get through games without really bad individual breakdowns. That’s a challenge. That’s not to rip on anybody or anything like that. That’s the truth,” Barr said. “If we’re going to be the team we want to be, we can’t be falling down on our own, turning pucks over … panicking, those type of things we have to fix. And we will. It’s not because the kids don’t care or anything like that. It’s part of growing as a team.”