WORCESTER, Mass. -- His initials adorn a green shamrock on the left shoulder of their uniforms. There's also an "SW" on the back of their helmets. And if you listen closely, the players occasionally refer to him in the present tense.

	Maine has dedicated its season to coach Shawn Walsh, who died of cancer on Sept. 24.

Shawn Walsh lost his battle with kidney cancer last Sept. 24, but the hockey players he attracted to Maine are clearly still playing for their former coach.

"When I talked to him over the summer he was very excited to get going," senior defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf said. "He wanted to start the season right away, so right from the start we've tried to make coach proud.

"He was really excited about this year. He always said we had a team that could do it, so I just want to keep that dream alive for him."

Thanks to a pair of 4-3 victories, over Harvard (in overtime) and Boston University, at last weekend's NCAA East Regional, Maine advanced to its eighth Frozen Four appearance, its third in the past four seasons. Up next for the Black Bears is a national semifinal against No. 1 New Hampshire (April 4, 1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

It will be the fifth meeting this season between these two Hockey East schools (UNH leads 2-1-1), and a rematch of the conference championship game, won 3-1 by UNH on March 16 in Boston. It's no surprise that the top-ranked Wildcats are playing in St. Paul, but Maine's trip to the Frozen Four is a little unexpected considering the emotional roller coaster the team has been on the past year.

When Walsh walked off the ice in this same building on March 24, 2001 -- following a 3-1 loss to eventual national champion Boston College in the 2001 NCAA East Regionals -- no one knew at the time he had coached his final game. He had been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in June of 2000, but he managed to stay and coach the team last season. The plan for the summer included stem cell transplant therapy in an effort to fight the cancer.

	What Walsh Has Meant
	A look at Shawn Walsh's tenure at Maine: Two national titles ('93, '99) Seven Frozen Four appearances 11 NCAA Tournament appearances 20 NCAA Tournament victories 399-215-44 (17 seasons)

Despite the severity of the treatments, which also included the removal of his left kidney and lung in the 15 months he lived with the disease, Walsh fully expected he would be back behind the Maine bench for the start of practice in September.

"We don't expect to see the tumor-fighting results until a few more months down the line, but all the indications so far point to a successful conclusion," Walsh said last summer.

But Walsh needed someone he was comfortable with to run the team just in case health issues forced him to miss any hockey time. He called on friend and former assistant Tim Whitehead, who had just completed a five-year run as the head coach at UMass-Lowell.

"Tim will help us keep consistency in our program. He knows our system and he knows the league inside-out," Walsh said when he hired Whitehead as an assistant on Sept. 7, 2001. "He's a top-notch teacher and coach that will add a lot to the success of our program."

Seventeen days later, Walsh was gone and Whitehead was named the interim head coach.

After a slow 3-4-2 start, Maine righted itself and went on a 13-3-2 run. And heading into Thursday's national semifinal, the Black Bears are 8-1-1 since Feb. 22.

"I'm very proud of the players," Whitehead said. "They've done a tremendous job this season and they just weren't going to be denied. We've certainly had our highs and lows, as you can imagine. It's been a very challenging season."

The interim coach gives credit to the four seniors -- Metcalf, forward Niko Dimitrakos, and goalies Mike Morrison and Matt Yeats -- for keeping the team together. But Whitehead thinks that Metcalf has been the big difference.

"Peter Metcalf is a fantastic captain," Whitehead said. "He's a fierce competitor and he's done a great job of keeping this team tight and making sure that everyone feels important on the team. A lot of it comes from Peter and his determination to make this a season Shawn would be proud of, and that's been our focus."

In addition to his leadership skills, Metcalf also is having his best season on the ice. The Pembroke, Mass., native leads the team in assists (39) and plus-minus rating (plus-27), and his classmates are enjoying their top college seasons, too. Dimitrakos has registered career-best totals in goals (20), assists (28) and points (48), and Morrison's 19 wins are seven better than his career total entering this season.

But has Walsh's continued impact on the team been given too much credit for Maine's success this season? Not so, according to the players.

"It's definitely a big factor," Dimitrakos said. "Everybody on this team came to Maine to play for coach Walsh. He built Maine from scratch and we just want to keep it going for him."

"He's still a huge inspiration to us," Yeats added. "He built this program, he built this team. Coach Whitehead has done a great job, but we're really playing for (Walsh). He's the guy who got us all here and he's definitely on our minds."

And the legion of believers extends outside the Maine family.

"I really think that Shawn's memory is driving Maine right now," Providence coach Paul Pooley said. "Their coaches and players have done a good job, but I got that sense at the Hockey East banquet when Shawn's wife spoke and Tim Whitehead spoke. I think that's a driving force behind Maine and I think that's really been a motivational factor for them. And intangibles can make a difference in these type of things."

With the score tied at 1 entering the third period against the Terriers, Metcalf sought out Dimitrakos and went to that emotional well one more time. "I tapped Niko right on the shin pads at the start of the third period and said, 'Let's do this. Let's do this for coach.'"

Maine went out and put three third-period goals past BU goalie Sean Fields and held on in the closing seconds to get the 4-3 win and advance to the Frozen Four.

"We had a slow start to the season, and then as soon as the new year rolled around things started clicking," Metcalf said. "The team started playing well and this dream came back into place."

It's alive and en route to St. Paul.

David Albright is a senior editor for ESPN.com.