ORONO – The University of Maine line of junior center Robert Liscak between sophomore left wing Todd Jackson and junior right wing Gray Shaneberger is considered the team’s checking line whose primary responsibility is to shut down the opposing team’s top line.

But they were a scoring line on Friday night, combining for four goals and five assists to lead Maine to a 5-1 Hockey East victory over Merrimack College.

Liscak had two goals and an assist while Jackson and Shaneberger each produced a goal and two assists.

It was Shaneberger’s first three-point game of the season while it was the second for Jackson and Liscak.

Marty Kariya added a power-play goal for the Bears while Tim Foster scored the Merrimack goal.

“They may call them a checking line but there’s some point production there,” said Merrimack associated head coach Mike Doneghey, who is filling in as the head coach while Chris Serino battles throat cancer.

Maine is now 12-7-4 overall, 6-3-2 in Hockey East. Merrimack fell to 8-13-2 and 3-8-2. The two teams will square off again tonight at 7.

Maine extended its Alfond Arena winning streak over Merrimack to six games.

“From the first shift we got out there, we felt really good,” said Shaneberger who opened the scoring just 40 seconds into the game. “We were talking and we knew where we were going.”

Liscak said, “It started right out of the gate. We cycled the puck and Todd took their defensemen wide. With his speed, he can beat anybody. We just threw the puck to the net and stuff happened. We got some lucky boucnes.”

Maine’s first two goals were flukey.

Shaneberger came out of the corner with the puck “and I saw Jackson coming down the far side. The puck took a lucky bounce and hit something [a Merrimack defenseman] and snuck into the net. I’ll take those all day.”

Jackson scored 4:10 later off a rush down the left wing.

“I was trying to get the puck over to Liscak but it hit their defenseman’s [Brad Mills] stick and went top shelf,” said Jackson of his backhand pass that wound up in the back of the net.

Foster cut the lead in half after a nice stickhandling maneuver by Nick Parillo and his backhand diagonal pass. Foster fired a slap shot from the top of the left circle that hit Maine goalie Mike Morrison’s stick, dropped down and trickled into the net.

But Liscak scored a momentum-killer just 34 seconds later off a feed from the left corner by Shaneberger, who admitted he was trying to hit someone else in the slot.

“I saw Gray coming down and Todd was already in the corner. I was coming up high to be the defensive guy and Gray threw it into space. I was wide open in front of the net. I pulled it from my backhand to my forehand and went low blocker side. That’s always a good shot,” said Liscak who beat Joe Exter to the far side from 16 feet out.

The Warriors had a golden opportunity to cut into the lead when Maine first-year defenseman Prestin Ryan lost his composure and took a slashing minor and five-minute major for cross checking. It was his third five-minute major of the season and interim head coach Tim Whitehead benched him for the rest of the game.

The Bears killed off the seven minutes and limited Merrimack to just three shots on goal.

“We only had one power-play unit and we had some guys out there who aren’t normally on the power play,” said Doneghey whose Warriors were without second-leading scorer Ryan Cordeiro (ankle sprain) and fifth-leading point-getter Matt Foy (two-game suspension for violating team rules).

“That was a huge point in the game. That next goal was a huge goal,” said Liscak. “Either it was going to be 4-1 or 3-2. We came out hard and killed off the seven minutes.”

Kariya said “we’ve been focusing more on our PK. But they were off their game a little bit. They’ll be a lot sharper tomorrow.”

Kariya and Liscak expanded the lead to 5-1 with goals 4:06 apart in the second period.

Kariya’s power-play goal was Maine’s first in four games and came off his own rebound of a deflected shot.

“Schutter [Michael Schutte] got a piece of it and I had a backhand. Then it came back to me and I put it through his legs on the ice,” said Kariya.

Liscak was sent in alone on Exter off a two-on-one with Shaneberger that was triggered by a Jackson pass.

Exter was then replaced by Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week Jason Wolfe and he stopped all 16 shots he faced the rest of the way..

Merrimack had a number of good scoring chances but Morrison made 16 saves through two periods.

BLACK BEARS 5, WARRIORS 1

Merrimack (8-13-2) 1 0 0 ? 1

Maine (12-7-4) 3 2 0 ? 5

First period ? 1. Maine, Shaneberger 4 (una.), 0:40; 2. Maine, Jackson 6 (Liscak, Barnes) 4:50; 3. Merr., Foster 2 (Parillo, Aquino) 10:26; 4. Maine, Liscak 9 (Shaneberger, Jackson) 11:00; Penalties: Maine, Ryan, slashing (five-minute major for cross-checking) 13:34; Maine, Loya, unsportsmanlike conduct, 17:45; Merr., Kiley, unsportsmanlike conduct, 17:45

Second period ? 5. Maine, Kariya 10 (Schutte, Reimann) pp, 1:47; 6. Maine, Liscak 10 (Shaneberger, Jackson) 5:53; Penalties: Merr., State, holding, 0:52; Maine, Nault, holding, 7:53; Merr., Aquino, obstruction interference, 9:01

Third period ? no scoring; Penalties: Maine, Deschamps, obstruction interference, 9:42; Merr., Lauze, roughing, 12:04; Merr., Reidy, slashing, 17:54

Shots on goal: Merrimack 9-8-8?25; Maine 7-14-9?30

Goaltenders: Merrimack, Exter (14 shots-9 saves), Wolfe (16-16, 5:53 of second); Maine, Morrison (17-16), Yeats (8-8, 0:00 of third)

Power-play opportunities: Merrimack 0 of 4; Maine 1 of 4

High-percentage scoring chances: Merrimack 6-10-3?19; Maine 7-9-5?21

Attendance: 4,618