ORONO – The Wayne State University Warriors were like the little terrier that grabs on to your pantleg and won’t let go.

The Warriors, in just their second year of varsity existence and with 12 freshmen and five sophomores in the lineup, played disciplined, defense-oriented hockey and frustrated the University of Maine’s Black Bears for 55 minutes.

But the Bears received the breathing room they needed and deserved when Lewiston’s Cindy Biron scored with 4:16 remaining and freshman left wing Karen Droog added another 2:10 later as Maine triumphed 4-1 at the Alfond Arena Thursday night.

Maine is now 6-7 overall while Wayne State fell to 3-12 in losing its sixth in a row.

Meagan Aarts and Raffi Wolf staked the Bears to a 2-0 first-period lead. Wolf’s goal came on the power play.

Wayne State’s Joanie Denby scored the lone goal of the second period on a five-on-three power play.

The Bears outshot the Warriors 20-2 in the third period but freshman goalie Anna VanderMarliere kept them at bay until Biron converted a Jarin Sjogren pass.

Sjogren circled the net before finding Biron in the low slot 10 feet out.

“I went hard to the net and one-timed it on the backhand,” said Biron.

Biron said she purposely delayed her move to the net and that enabled her to find an open seam.

“If I had just gone straight to the net, they would have picked me up,” said Biron.

VanderMaliere said Biron’s shot “went right under my [left] pad.”

Biron said the Bears felt they had something to prove in the third period.

“The third period was our period. We knew we were better than we had played over the first two periods,” said Biron.

Droog agreed, saying, “We had to step it up in the third period.”

Her insurance goal came on a slap shot from the middle of the high slot that glanced off VanderMaliere’s shoulder.

Biron and Droog said Maine coach Rick Filghera told the team between periods that they had to start shooting more and getting the puck on net.

“I was happy with the way we played in the third period,” said Filighera. “I rolled three lines out there.”

He pointed out that right wing Christine Lane suffered a wrist injury in the first period and that forced him to juggle his lines around. But he eventually decided to just stick with three and it paid off.

Wayne State coach Tom O’Malley said he was pleased with his team’s performance.

“I was happy with the effort. We played well for the full 60 minutes. It’s a big improvement over last year,” said O’Malley, whose team dropped 11-0 and 9-3 decisions to Maine a year ago.

“The girls played their hearts out,” said goalie VanderMaliere whose mates covered the front of the net well.

“They were a good team,” said Biron.

Aarts opened the scoring 11:22 into the game when she pounced on the rebound of a Droog shot from the midpoint that came off the back boards and tucked the puck under VanderMaliere’s pad.

Wolf made it 2-0 by gathering in her own rebound, circling the net and sweeping a wraparound past VanderMaliere.

Wayne State received a full two-minute, two-man advantage in the second period and capitalized when Denby, positioned in the low slot, deflected Kelly Meech’s wrist shot from the point straight down and into the net past Maine goalie Amanda Cronin.

VanderMaliere was superb, rejecting 44 shots including 19 of the Grade-A variety. Cronin turned in a solid 13-save outing including seven Grade-A stops.

Black Bears 4, Warriors 1

Wayne State (3-12-0) 0 1 0 – 1

Maine (6-7-0) 2 0 2 – 4

First period – 1. Maine, Aarts 2 (Droog) 11:32; 2. Maine, Wolf 5 (unassisted), 17:39 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Heggestad, holding, 3:03; Maine, Sjogren, slashing, 4:01; WS, Meech, interference, 16:47; Maine, Munro, checking, 18:46

Second period – 3. WS, Denby 1 (Meech), 3:39 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Aarts, cross-checking, 2:34; Maine, bench minor (served by Magno), 2:34; Maine, Stevens, roughing, 6:30; WS, Meech, roughing, 6:30; Maine, Sjogren, checking, 7:23; WS, Jones, holding, 15:41

Third period – 4. Maine, Biron 3 (Sjogren) 15:44; 5. Maine, Droog 8 (Aarts), 15:54. Penalties: WS, Pitcher, roughing, 13:07

Shots on goal: Wayne State 6-6-2-14; Maine 14-14-20-48

Goaltenders: Wayne State, Vandermarliere (48 shots-44 saves); Maine, Cronin (14-13)

Power-play Opportunities: Wayne State 1-6; Maine 1-3

High-percentage scoring attempts: Wayne State: 6-6-1-13; Maine 14-10-18-42

Attendance: 125