AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Maine’s Reggie Cardinal and Blair Allison each learned that the NCAA had granted them another year of eligibility before Tuesday night’s Hockey East game against the University of Massachusetts.

They also learned, along with their teammates, that the Bears would be included in the Hockey East Tournament despite the fact the school has banned them to go to the NCAA Tournament this season.

Cardinal, Allison and the Bears celebrated at the expense of the Minutemen as left winger Cardinal notched his first career hat trick and Allison made 25 saves to lead the Black Bears to a 7-1 win at the Mullins Center.

Maine is now 15-3-3 overall and has extended its unbeaten streak to 11 games dating back to a 5-2 loss to Boston University on Nov. 14.

The Bears are 7-2-3 in Hockey East.

UMass is 9-8, 3-6.

“My number one goal when I came to Maine was to graduate and now I’ll get to do it while playing hockey. That’s a great incentive,” said Cardinal. “And going to the Hockey East Tournament has motivated us even more because that will be our NCAA championship.”

Cardinal was pleased by his hat trick, “I felt good warming up and got off to a quick start. That helped me out and I felt better and better as the game went on,” he said.

Cardinal scored on the power play 3:42 into the game off a Steve Kariya pass and Tony Frenette made it 2-0 1:28 later. After Steve MacKinnon got one back for UMass, Brett Clark’s power-play goal made it 3-1 with 1:47 left in the period.

Cardinal added a pair of second-period goals and David Cullen made it 6-1 for Maine before Lovell closed out the scoring in the third period with Maine’s fourth power-play goal.

Maine went 4-for-7 on the power play.

“Blair Allison kept us in early,” said Maine interim head coach Greg Cronin. “They had some great opportunities when we picked up three straight penalties but he shut them down and then we capitalized on our chances and that swung momentum to our favor. Our power play was awesome and Reggie had a great game. He was real poised and confident with the puck.”

Maine outshot UMass 38-26.

Black Bears 7, Minutemen 1

Maine 3 3 1 – 7 UMass 1 0 0 – 1

First period – 1. Maine, Cardinal 4 (Kariya, Parmentier), 3:42, (pp); 2. Maine, Frenette 11 (Lovell), 5:10; 3. UMass, MacKinnon 1 (Cahill, Hooper), 10:07; 4. Maine, Clark 4 (Tory), 18:13; (pp). Penalties – UMass, O’Connor, holding, 1:59; Maine, Cullen, hooking, 7:57; Maine, Mahoney, slashing, 10:35; Maine, Mahoney, interference, 15:18; UMass, Juden, hooking, 17:31; Maine, Hooper, hitting after the whistle, 18:03.

Second period – 5. Maine, Cardinal 5 (Libby, Purdie), 5:03, (pp), 6. Maine, Cardinal 6 (unassisted), 10:12; 7. Maine, Cullen 2 (Kariya), 19:08. Penalties – UMass, Hooper, holding, 3:30; UMass, Evans, interference, 7:03; Maine, Libby, holding, 11:50; Maine, Cardinal, high sticking, 12:15.

Third period – 7. Maine, Lovell 13 (Clark, Tory), 7:45, (pp). Penalties – Maine, Shermerhorn, tripping, 4:21; UMass, Evans, slashing, 7:06; UMass, O’Connor, interference, 9:32; Maine, Vitorino, interference, 15:52.

Shots on goal: Maine 13-11-14 – 38; UMass 10-12-4 – 26

Goaltenders: Maine, Blair Allison (26 shots, 25 saves); UMass, Brian Regan (24-18), Dave Kilduff (14-13)

Attendance – 4,190