NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – University of Maine sophomore right wing Paul Kariya altered his stick to get more accuracy on his shot. It worked.

Kariya gave Maine the lead for good with a second-period goal and the Bears erupted for three goals in a span of 3:38 later in the period en route to a 6-3 Hockey East victory over Merrimack here Saturday night.

Maine is 5-0 this season. It was Maine’s 28th consecutive road victory. The Bears extended their winning streak over Merrimack to 20 games.

Merrimack is 4-3 overall and 0-2 in Hockey East.

“I’ve been working on my shot all week. I took a little curve off my stick and it seemed to work,” said Kariya, who took a cross-ice pass from Jacque Rodrigue and one-timed a 16-foot blast that glanced off the body of Merrimack goalie Martin Legault and popped into the net.

“I tried to get the puck up because he was going down all weekend,” said Kariya, who was positioned in the face-off circle to Legault’s left.

Rodrigue, playing in place of the injured Jason Weinrich and Jeff Tory, whose eligibility is being reviewed by the NCAA, also set up the next goal when his drive from the right point was tipped in by Justin Tomberlin.

“I told Justin to go to the net,” said Rodrigue. “Trevor (Roenick) drew the puck (from a face-off) right back to my stick.”

“I had my stick on the ice. Jacque’s shot hit my stick and went between the goalie’s pads. I was as surprised as anyone that it went in,” said Tomberlin.

Just 2:46 later, Patrice Tardif broke down the left wing, beat Legault in a race for the puck, pulled it around him and slid it behind the goalie.

“He came out after the puck but stopped,” said Tardif, who took advantage of the fact Legault was caught out of position. “I don’t think he would have been able to get it anyway.”

It was Tardif’s second goal of the game. Reg Cardinal notched his second with 45 seconds left in the period. He was set up from behind the net by Dan Shermerhorn and deposited a 10-footer behind Legault.

“I took a quick glance, saw a blue (Maine) jersey and threw it out there,” said Shermerhorn.

Dan Hodge had staked Merrimack to a 1-0 lead with a shot from the right point 2:02 into the game, but Maine pulled ahead when Cardinal poked in the puck during a wild scramble and Tardif swept a shot between Legault’s pads off a Kariya pass.

Rob Atkinson tied in the second period by swatting the rebound of a Matt Adams shot between Maine goalie Blair Allison’s pads.

After Maine’s flurry, John Jakopin closed out the scoring for Merrimack with a third-period goal.

Maine dominated the game to the tune of a 51-26 shot margin including a 32-12 edge in high-percentage shots. The shot margin was more impressive considering Maine was forced to kill off five more penalties than the Warriors.

“We decided to throw everything to the net and it paid off,” said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. “I was impressed with how our no-name players played, guys like (Barry) Clukey, Roenick and (Brad) Mahoney. And Jacque Rodrigue really played well. He was the biggest surprise of the weekend.”

“They’re still the No. 1 team in the country until somebody takes it away,” said Merrimack coach Ron Anderson. “As long as they have Paul Kariya, they’re going to be hard to beat.”

Kariya had three assists to go with his goal. Allison was solid in net with 23 saves.

Black Bears 6, Warriors 3

Maine 2-4-0 – 6 Merrimack 1-1-1 – 3

First period – 1. Merrimack, Hodge 3 (unassisted), 2:02; 2. Maine, Cardinal 2 (Kariya), 10:40; 3. Maine, Tardif 4 (Kariya), 16:27. Penalties – Maine, MacIsaac, holding, 2:58; Maine, Silverman, holding, 9:49; Merrimack, Adams, roughting, 9:49; Merrimack, Beck, tripping, 15:48; Maine, Silverman, interference, 19:32.

Second period – 4. Merrimack, Atkinson 5 (Adams, Naylor), 6:17; 5. Maine, Kariya 5 (Rodrigue, MacIsaac), 9:10; 6. Maine, Tomberlin 1 (Roenick, Rodrigue), 15:37; 7. Maine, Tardif 5 (Latendresse, Saunders), 18:23; 8. Maine, Cardinal 3 (Shermerhorn, Kariya), 19:15. Penalties – Merrimack, Capuano, interference, 3:25; Merrimack, Marszalek, high sticking, 5:30; Maine, Clukey, high sticking, 5:30; Maine, Texeira, interference, 5:43; Merrimack, Krauss, cross checking, 8:30; Maine, Saunders, interference, 12:18; Maine, Tomberlin, interference, 15:46; Merrimack, Atkinson, boarding, 16:01; Maine, Texeira, hitting after the whistgle, 18:39; Merrimack, Hodge, hitting after the whistle, 18:39; Maine, Saunders, elbowing, 19:27.

Third period – 9. Merrimack, Jakopin 1 (Atkinson, Adams), 11:35. Penalties – Merrimack, Fendelet, boarding, 5:55; Maine, Tardif, hooking, 6:33; Maine, Silverman, tripping, 7:37; Merrimack, Ross, roughing after the whistle, 10:01; Maine, Mahoney, roughing after the whistle, 10:01; Maine Tardif, slashing, 16:26; Maine, Latendresse, slashing and 10-minute misconduct.

Shots on goal: Maine 20-16-15 – 51; Merrimack 10-9-7 – 26

Goaltenders: Maine, Blair Allison; Merrimack, Martin Legault and Eric Thibeault