The University of Maine hockey team saw New Hampshire’s opening goal, but conceded second-period goals at 2:30 to all but Lynden Breen and Owen Fowler, then posted a 3-1 win over the archrival Wildcats in a sold-out crowd. Whittemore Center in Durham, NH Friday evening.

Sophomore goalkeeper Albin Boija made two big saves on UNH leading scorer Ryan Conmy late in the third period to preserve a 2-1 lead before sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic iced the win with a short empty-net goal with five seconds left.

The win ended UMaine’s six-game winless streak (0-3-3) at the Whittemore Center.

It’s the third negative streak the Black Bears have recorded this season as they won at Northeastern to end a 16-game winless drought (0-14-2) at Matthews Arena, and the win and draw of last weekend against Boston University ended BU’s run of six. straight wins against UMaine.

UMaine, ranked fifth in one national poll and sixth in the other, improved to 8-2-2 overall and 5-2-2 in Hockey East.

UNH is now 4-4-2 and 1-3-2 respectively.

Liam Devlin gave UNH a 1-0 lead in the second period with a five-on-three power play goal.

He was placed on one knee at the far post and received a perfectly placed cross pass from Conmy.

It was Devlin’s second goal of the season.

The Graduate Student Center and co-captain Breen tied for UMaine at 10:36.

“(Owen) Fowler made a great block after I lost a faceoff and we ended up at a two-on-one. Charlie Russell gave me a pass and I shot it to the far post,” said Breen, who shot from just inside the left face-off circle, parallel to the face-off dot.

His shot beat UNH goalie Jared Whale to the glove side.

It was his second goal of the season.

On their next shift, Breen intercepted a UNH clearance just inside the blue line and passed it off to junior left winger Fowler.

Fowler drove to the net just a few feet from the extended goal line and turned the puck across the crease where it hit UNH defenseman Luke Reid and went into the net.

It was his fourth goal of the season.

“When you bring the puck to the net on the inside like that, good things happen,” Breen said

UMaine impressively defended its lead in the third period and Boija came up big.

He first made a good save on Devlin’s shot off a Conmy feed and then saved a Conmy one-timer off a Devlin pass before robbing Conmy again after he was able to maneuver around UMaine defenseman David Breazeale.

Djurasevic put the game away with his first goal as a Black Bear after transferring from Merrimack College.

Boija finished with 25 saves and Whale had 31.

Breen said it was an important win to prove that “we can win on the road” and not just be a good home team.

“It was a gritty road win in a tough place to win,” UMaine coach Ben Barr said. “It wasn’t perfect. We had some turnover. But the positives outweighed the negatives.”

Barr said the team got a lift from the fourth line of Oskar Komarov, Anthony Calafiore and Thomas Pichette because it was able to provide energy and maintain forechecks.

UMaine All-Hockey East third-teamer Josh Nadeau missed the game with a facial/head injury.

UMaine travels to Troy, New York, for non-conference games on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 3:00 PM against Barr’s alma mater, RPI.