BOSTON – The University of Maine Black Bears displayed resiliency in Saturday night’s 4-4 overtime tie at Boston University and came a weird deflection away from sweeping a BU team that had won nine straight entering Friday’s 9-6 loss to Maine.

Maine overcame three one-goal deficits and 12 Terrier power plays, including a five-minute hitting-from-behind major on Colin Shields, to extend its unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2).

Maine had seven power-play chances to BU’s 12 but still outshot BU 34-26.

The tie gave BU, 23-8-3 overall and 15-6-3 in league play, the second seed and a Hockey East best-of-three quarterfinal series berth against No. 7 Providence beginning Friday.

The Bears, 20-9-7 and 14-5-6, wound up third and host sixth seed Boston College starting Thursday.

Maine and BU each finished with 33 league points but since they split their season series 1-1-1, the second tiebreaker is conference wins.

“Anytime you can steal three out of four points at BU, especially in March, you’ve done something,” said Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead. “I was pleased with how we attacked the weekend and, most importantly, how hard the guys played. We found a way to come back three times on Saturday.”

“It’s frustrating to battle through what we did and not get the win. But we showed tonight [by rallying] how much we’ve grown as a team,” said Maine senior defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf, who had three assists.

BU senior left wing and captain Mike Pandolfo’s game-tying goal with 2:43 remaining came about when Ryan Whitney’s shot from the left point hit Pandolfo’s body and deflected past Maine goalie Matt Yeats.

“I never saw the shot. One of their guys [Troy Barnes] had me tied up,” said Pandolfo.

The sequence that led to the goal was also flukey as Paul Falco fell just before clearing the puck.

“I lost an edge [on my skates]. There was no one around me so I would have been able to get it out of the zone easily,” said Falco.

Mark Mullen threw the puck off the far boards and Whitney took his slapper from the top of the left circle.

Falco preserved the tie moments later by hustling back to tie up Mullen, who would have had an empty net tap-in off a 2-on-1 with Brian Collins.

BU’s Freddy Meyer and Maine’s Niko Dimitrakos swapped first-period goals as Meyer’s centering pass glanced in off Maine defenseman Prestin Ryan and Dimitrakos redirected Metcalf’s point shot past BU goalie Sean Fields on the power play for the first of his two goals.

Jack Baker made it 2-1 on the power play in the second period as he weaved brilliantly around Cliff Loya and Metcalf and flipped a backhander over Yeats’ blocker.

But Todd Jackson answered by intercepting a Chris Dyment pass in front of the BU net, faking a shot and sliding it around the helpless Fields.

Baker scored on a 5-on-3 4:39 into the third period as he tipped Dyment’s point shot behind Yeats.

But that was the only goal BU scored during the major.

“Maine did a good job on the penalty kill,” said Pandolfo.

Lucas Lawson tied it by extending his goal-scoring streak to six games with a 30-foot one-timer into the far corner off a soft pass from Marty Kariya, and Dimitrakos capped a seven-point (4 goals, 3 assists) weekend by giving Maine its first lead on the power play with a 15-foot wrister into the far corner off a give-and-go with Metcalf with 5:40 left.

BLACK BEARS 4, TERRIERS 4 (OT)

Maine (20-9-7) 1 1 2 0 ? 4

Boston University (23-8-3) 1 1 2 0 ? 4

First period ? 1. BU, Meyer (Sabo, Cronin), 15:18; 2. Maine, Dimitrakos 17 (Metcalf, Shields), 17:52 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Shields, holding, 1:27; BU, McConnell, holding, 1:27; BU, Klema, slashing, 9:04; Maine, Dimitrakos, hooking, 13:15; BU, Sabo, double minor, roughing, 15:18; BU, Baker, double minor, roughing, 15:18; Maine, Nault, double minor, roughing, 15:18; Maine, Ryan, double minor, roughing, 15:18; BU, Dyment, interference, 17:40

Second period ? 3. BU, Baker 13 (Meyer, Cronin), 11:42 (pp); 4. Maine, Jackson 7 (unassisted), 15:02. Penalties: BU, Sabo, interference, 1:09; Maine, Schutte, hooking, 3:00; BU, Maiser, roughing, 6:11; Maine, Heisten, roughing, 6:11; BU, Whitney, holding, 7:13; Maine, Schutte, hooking, 8:01; Maine, Ryan, slashing, 11:24; BU, Meyer, charging, 13:26; Maine, Nault, slashing, 14:38; Maine, Liscak, 10-min. misconduct, 14:38; BU, Whitney, holding, 16:57; Maine, Metcalf, holding, 19:50; BU, Baker, roughing, 19:50

Third period ? 5. BU, Baker 14 (Dyment, McConnell), 4:39 (pp); 6. Maine, Lawson 13 (Kariya), 12:24; 7. Maine, Dimitrakos 18 (Metcalf), 14:20 (pp); 8. BU, Pandolfo 21 (Whitney, Mullen), 17:17. Penalties: Maine, Shields, 5-min. major, hitting from behind and game misconduct, 1:31; Maine, Metcalf, roughing, 4:23; Maine, Ryan, tripping, 7:20; BU, Baker, slashing, 8:10; Maine, Heisten, slashing, 8:54; BU, Baker, elbowing, 13:22

Overtime ? No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Dimitrakos, double minor, roughing, 10-min. misconduct, 5:00

Shots on goal: Maine 6-16-11-1?34; BU 7-3-15-1?26

Goaltenders: Maine, Yeats (26 shots-22 saves); BU, Fields (34-28)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 2 of 7; BU 2 of 12

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 6-16-8-2?32; BU 4-5-11-1?21

Attendance: 3,623