ORONO – The University of Maine Black Bears have developed a bad habit lately by spotting their opponents two-goal first-period leads in four of their last five games. The result has been an 0-3-1 mark in those games.

The Boston College Eagles jumped out to a 3-1 first-period lead and were able to withstand a series of third-period flurries to edge the Bears 3-2 at the Alfond Arena Friday night in men’s hockey action.

The teams will play again tonight at 7.

BC improved to 15-7-1 overall, 8-6-1 in Hockey East. BC is 10-2-1 in its last 13 games. Maine fell to 15-5-4, 6-5-3. Maine has now lost its last two homes games after going 9-0-1 in its first 10.

“BC deserved to win. They played very well. They played like a team that was picked number one in the country at the outset of the season,” said Maine coach Shawn Walsh.

The Bears had a potential tying goal waved off with 9:48 to go in the third period.

Barrett Heisten had a breakaway saved by freshman goalie Tim Kelleher.

Heisten and a BC defenseman collided with Kelleher and the post came off the moorings which negated Chris Heisten’s rebound into the back of the net.

“I was just trying to react to him [Heisten],” said Kelleher, who finished with 22 saves. “One of our defenseman was right behind him so I figured he couldn’t do too much. He shot it into my stomach.”

Kelleher said the posts did come off their moorings before Chris Heisten’s shot.

Matthias Trattnig hit the post with a backhander earlier in the third period and Kelleher came up with a good pad save on Ben Guite’s one-timer early in the period and two Cory Larose slappers late in the period.

Maine’s Niko Dimitrakos was tripped on a partial breakaway with 22 seconds left in the game by Bobby Allen but, despite pleas from the Maine bench, no penalty shot was awarded.

Goals 2:43 apart by Mike Lephart and Jeff Farkas snapped a 1-1 tie and gave BC its 3-1 lead.

BC’s Ales Dolinar and Maine’s Brendan Walsh had swapped earlier first-period goals.

“It was very important to get a lead up here,” said BC coach Jerry York. “If you fall behind, it’s a long climb to get back into the game.

“Tim came up with some big saves,” added York.

In the second period, against the run of play, the Bears’ Robert Liscak capitalized on a mistake by Kelleher, who juggled and dropped a chest-high wrist shot by Martin Kariya which allowed Liscak to push the puck into the net.

The Bears had not played since their 3-3 overtime tie at Boston University on Jan. 16 and it showed in the decisive first period.

The explosive and fleet-skating Eagles forced several turnovers and consistently intercepted lazy passes by the Bears. BC outshot Maine 17-8 over the first 20 minutes.

Maine was able to answer Dolinar’s early first-period goal when Brendan Walsh capitalized on a power play extending Maine’s string to 12 straight games with a power-play goal.

But Lephart regained the lead for BC on the power play after Maine’s Ben Guite cross-checked Mike Mottau.

Lephart had swooped on a loose puck behind the net and centered it to Rob Scuderi for a one-timer from the left circle. Yeats made a pad save but Lephart circled the net after making the pass and roofed the rebound from a sharp angle.

“I dove out to try to cover the puck,” said Yeats, who finished with 34 stops.

Jeff Giuliano set up Farkas’ goal by pouncing on an Anders Lundback turnover and sliding it to him in the middle of the slot.

“There was a guy on me but he looked into the corner for a second and that’s when the pass game to me,” said Farkas, who wasted no time one-timing a rising wrister over Yeats’ left leg with just 28 seconds remaining in the period.

“It was a good shot,” Yeats said.

Eagles 3, Black Bears 2

Boston College (15-7-1) 3 0 0 – 3 Maine (15-5-4) 1 1 0 – 2

First period – 1. BC, Dolinar 5 (Mottau), 6:32; 2. Maine, Walsh 5 (Trattnig, Liscak), 12:13 (pp); 3. BC, Lephart 11 (Scuderi, Giuliano), 16:49 (pp); 4. BC, Farkas 18 (Giuliano), 19:32; Penalties: BC, Mottau, hitting after the whistle, :27; Maine, Guite, hitting after the whistle, :27; BC, Caulfield, roughing, 3:01; BC, Kolanos, tripping, 9:29; BC, Orpik, interference, 10:57; Maine, Guite, cross checking, 15:23; BC, Bellefeuille, hitting after the whistle, 16:29; Maine, Begg, hitting after the whistle, 16:29

Second period – 5. Maine, Liscak 5 (Kariya, Ek), 16:05. Penalties: Maine, Walsh, interference, 1:31; BC, Kolanos, cross checking, 5:10; BC, Kolanos, slashing, 13:28; Maine, Janik, holding, 19:29

Third period – No scoring. Penalties: BC, Caulfield, interference, 5:25; BC, Allen, tripping, 19:38

Shots on goal: BC 17-13-7-37; Maine 8-11-5-24

High-percentage scoring chances: BC 8-6-4-18, Maine 7-6-5-18

Power-play Opportunities: BC 1 of 3, Maine 1 of 7

Goaltenders: BC, Kelleher (24 shots-22 saves); Maine, Yeats (37-34)

Attendance: 5,641