KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Western Michigan University squandered a pair of one-goal leads.

But the third one was a charm.

Freshman left wing Pat Dwyer’s five-on-three power play goal with 14:20 remaining broke a 3-3 tie and gave Western Michigan a 4-3 victory over the University of Maine Black Bears in men’s hockey action Friday at Lawson Arena.

Shortly after Maine’s Marty Kariya and Cliff Loya took penalties 21 seconds apart, Mike Bishai fed David Cousineau for a shot that Bear goalie Matt Yeats saved.

However, the rebound rolled in front and Dwyer crashed the net and poked it home for his team-leading fourth goal of the season.

The Broncos did a nice job protecting the lead and freshman goalie Mike Mantua, limiting Maine to just two high-percentage scoring opportunities over the final 20 minutes.

Western Michigan is now 3-2 while Maine fell to 2-3. The two teams will play again tonight at 7:05.

Western Michigan now owns two wins over nationally ranked teams as it upended No. 5 Michigan 3-1 on Oct. 19.

Maine entered the game ranked seventh in the United States College Hockey On-Line poll.

The Broncos opened the scoring 3:13 into the game when Brent Rumble converted on the power play.

Rumble, stationed to the left of the crease, swatted home a rebound from a scramble.

But Kariya answered 1:27 later when he was set up nicely by Peter Metcalf for a tap-in from the slot.

Freshman Jeremy Cheyne scored the first of his two goals at the 16:26 mark with a slap shot through Yeats’ pads off a Paul Davies drop pass.

Colin Shields’ sixth goal of the season knotted things up 1:22 later as he beat Mantua with a slapper from the top of the left faceoff circle.

Metcalf gave Maine its first and only lead of the game 1:15 into the second period when he pounced on a bouncing puck and fired a slapper that glanced in off the crossbar.

But the lead lasted just 1:15 as Cheyne answered by tucking a rebound inside the near post.

“I was very pleased with our performance,” said Western Michigan third-year coach Jim Culhane. “Getting on the board with a power-play goal early gave us some momentum. It was a very well played hockey game by both teams. I expect a tight, fierce game on Saturday.”

Mantua finished with 29 saves, including nine Grade-A rejections, while Yeats turned aside 23 shots including eight Grade-As.

Maine lost the services of senior winger Niko Dimitrakos early in the second period. Dimitrakos suffered a deep bruise to his rear end, according to Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead. He suffered the injury sliding into the boards and isn’t expected to play tonight.

Whitehead said turnovers, especially in the offensive zone, hurt his team.

“We had opportunities to throw the puck on net off our rushes [but we didn’t],” said Whitehead. “You can’t turn the puck over against a very good team like Western Michigan in their rink. We didn’t play a smart road game. We were too careless with the puck.

“We had four freshmen defensemen and our forwards have to be a lot more honest defensively than they were tonight. We need to help out our defensemen a lot more. We weren’t thinking defense first.”

He said the penalty to Loya was “the turning point in the game.”

He said there will be lineup changes and senior Mike Morrison will start in goal.

BRONCOS 4, BLACK BEARS 3

Maine (2-3) 2 1 0 ? 3

Western Michigan (3-2) 2 1 1 ? 4

First period ? 1. WMU, Rumble 1 (Cheyne, Cousineau), 3:13 (pp); 2. Maine, Kariya 1 (Metcalf), 4:40; 3. WMU, Cheyne 1 (Davies, Drake), 16:26; 4. Maine, Shields 6 (Jackson), 17:48. Penalties: Maine, Lawson, hooking, 1:28; WMU, Cheyne, interference, 5:08; WMU, Rose, roughing, 18:32; Maine, Reimann, holding, 18:32; WMU, Crane, tripping, 19:44.

Second period ? 5. Maine, Metcalf 1 (Reimann, Kariya), 1:15 (pp); 6. WMU, Cheyne 2 (Dwyer, Ponto), 2:30. Penalties: Maine, Metcalf, high sticking, 4:05; WMU, Lattery, slashing, 11:16; WMU, Cousineau, roughing, 19:08; Maine, Ryan, roughing, 19:08; WMU, Miller, checking from behind, 19:24.

Third period ? 7. WMU, Dwyer 4 (Cousineau, Bishai), 5:40 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Shields, hooking, 3:05; Maine, Kariya, cross checking, 5:05; Maine, Loya, interference, 5:26; WMU, Kline, roughing, 8:22; Maine, Ryan, diving, 8:22; WMU, Dwyer, roughing, 13:17; Maine, Lynch, roughing, 13:17; Maine, Ryan, double minor for roughing, 20:00.

Shots on goal: Maine 10-13-9?32; Western Michigan 6-12-9?27

Goaltenders: Maine, Yeats (27 shots-23 saves); Western Michigan, Mantua (32-29)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 1 of 4; Western Michigan 2 of 5

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 6-10-2?18; Western Michigan 3-8-5?16

Attendance: 2796