MUCH LIKE the movie character Carrie reaching up through the grave, the NHL corpse is somehow still breathing.

Though it is not quite a done deal, it appears as though we’re going to be witness to a resurrection. We’ll know for sure by the end of the weekend.

So many of the stories have been false. So many of the wild rumors have been ground in nothing more than hopes and fantasy. But this much is known: With the leadership of both sides having come under relentless pressure from their respective constituencies since Gary Bettman canceled the 2004-05 season at 1 p.m. Wednesday, the league and union have reached out to one another in a final effort to avoid turning the NHL landscape into a dump more toxic than Love Canal. Sources have told The Post that a meeting is planned today in Manhattan that is expected to include NHL Board members Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, league VP Bill Daly, NHLPA president Trevor Linden, VP Bill Guerin and senior director Ted Saskin, with at least some of the participants having met here yesterday and last night in an effort to establish a framework to achieve a peace-with-honor hard-cap $45M deal that would perhaps be phased in over the next two years.

The Post learned late last night that union chief Bob Goodenow has been excused from the negotiating process by the NHLPA after a week of union confusion.

If an agreement is indeed consummated, a well-placed source has told The Post, a 28-game schedule is likely to be played beginning March 3, followed by the traditional four-round playoff format.

Bettman, meanwhile, has his own issues with which to contend. Not only has ESPN made it clear that it may exercise its freedom of choice not to televise the league next year, not only have a significant number of mid- and large-market teams urged the commissioner to get on with the victory lap, but The Post has learned of warnings from a major advertiser that it will move its money elsewhere if a deal is not completed in timely fashion.

Though both sides would like the revenue generated from a truncated season, reviving a cancellation still will be a logistical nightmare and is likely to produce even more fodder for the late-night comedians.

Certainly, it would seem more prudent to announce a deal in order to create an orderly transition into the offseason, but, then, when has the NHL ever been prudent?

We’re told the PA confirmed to its members that Jeremy Roenick met with Bettman without the prior knowledge or authority of the union. We’ve learned, too, of reports the last few days that a group of players and agents were meeting to construct their own proposal are inaccurate. So, too, was it inaccurate that the executive committee wanted to present the league with a hard-cap counter-proposal of $46M but was overruled by Goodenow.

Even as the union appears prepared to deal with the reality of today and not the should-haves of yesterday and what-ifs of tomorrow, there are still a number of miserly, hardline ownership hawks who oppose raising the bar to the mid-40s. As if – with meaningful alterations to salary arbitration and qualifiers – they’d ever be under pressure to spend that much. As if a team with a $30M payroll can’t compete with one at $42.5M.

Still, with so many reputations now on the line on both sides – The Great Gretzky did not come here to fail – it appears as if a grave situation is about to be resolved.