ORONO – Sophomore left winger Ben Murphy saw University of Maine teammate Robert Liscak curling out of the offensive zone to get onside. He said he figured he would dump the puck into the right corner so Liscak could track it down.

Instead, the puck hit a Quinnipiac University defenseman and bounced right onto the stick of Liscak. He broke in down the right wing and beat Bobcat goalie Jamie Holden with 3:39 remaining to give the Black Bears a hard-fought 2-1 men’s hockey victory Tuesday night.

Maine is now 10-1-1 after extending its winning streak to seven games and its unbeaten streak to 10 games (9-0-1). The Bears are now 19-0-4 in their last 23 games at the Alfond Arena.

Quinnipiac, the defending MAAC tournament champion and an NCAA Tournament team, fell to 9-4-1 after losing its third straight. Their last two losses have been by 2-1 scores at Northeastern and Maine.

“I saw that we had the puck, so I figured we’d dump it in,” said Liscak. “All of a sudden, the puck was right there. I walked in and intended to shoot it right away, but one of their defensemen put his stick down. So I held it, put it on my backhand, and put it over the goalie’s pad into the short side.”

Holden said, “It hit the bottom of my glove and trickled in. You hate to see a goal like that decide a game.”

UMaine freshman left winger Greg Moore opened the scoring at the 14:55 mark of the second period on the power play, but Quinnipiac sophomore center Craig Falite equalized 2:20 into the third period.

Holden kept his team in the game with a personal single-period high of 22 saves in the first period. But Holden’s defensemen did an effective job clearing the front of the net, so he didn’t have to face many second and third shots. Just six of his 22 saves were of the Grade-A variety.

The Bobcats also did an impressive job limiting Maine’s transition chances as the Bears had just a couple of odd-man rushes in the game.

“It was one of the ugliest games I’ve seen,” said Maine senior center and assistant captain Marty Kariya. “They sat in front of their net and whenever you would try to get between the circles [in the offensive zone], there would be four or five sticks on you.”

“I complimented our defensemen after the game,” said Holden, whose blue-line corps blocked 17 shots.

The Bears finally broke through during a flurry in front created by a Lucas Lawson slapper from the circle to Holden’s left.

Holden made the pad save, but Liscak pounced on the rebound and rattled his shot off the underside of the crossbar.

“The puck came to me and I had the whole net. I put it through the five-hole of one of their defensemen,” said Moore.

Moore’s goal came minutes after Quinnipiac’s Matt Froehlich hit the far post from a difficult angle off his own rebound.

Falite tied it with a nifty individual move on a one-on-one against Maine defenseman Prestin Ryan.

He maneuvered around Ryan and slipped the puck past Maine goalie Frank Doyle from point-blank range.

“I went for the hit [on Falite], but in that situation, I shouldn’t have,” said Ryan in taking responsibility for the goal.

Doyle was sharp in his first game since injuring his calf in the first period of the 8-2 win over Northeastern on Nov. 15.

“I was pleased with it,” said Doyle, who finished with 16 saves, including several during a 33-second two-man disadvantage in the first three minutes of the game.

Quinnipiac had a couple of good chances in the final 30 seconds, but Doyle saved a point shot and the rebound eluded two Bobcats in front.

“They played hard. They haven’t given up many goals this year,” said Murphy.

Holden finished with 13 Grade-A saves among his 36 while Doyle made six Grade-A’s.

Maine went 1-for-8 on the power play. Quinnipiac went 0-for-2.

BLACK BEARS 2, BOBCATS 1

Quinnipiac (9-4-1) 0 0 1 ? 1

Maine (10-1-1) 0 1 1 ? 2

First period ? No scoring; Penalties: Maine, Ryan, interference, :12; Maine, Deschamps, hitting from behind, 1:39; Quin, Watkins, holding the stick, 3:55; Quin, Ross, holding, 9:56; Quin, Craig, roughing, 12:34; Quin, Craig, holding, 18:29

Second period ? 1. Maine, Moore 4 (Liscak, Lawson), 14:55. Penalties: Quin, holding, 2:48; Maine, Shaneberger, roughing, 2:48; Quin, bench minor (too many men on the ice), 7:56; Quin, Falite, hooking, 13:03; Quin, Kelly, elbowing, 17:04

Third period ? 2. Quin, Falite 7 (Watkins), 2:20; 3. Maine, Liscak 5 (Murphy), 16:21; Penalties: Quin, Ludwig, hooking, 9:50

Shots on goal: Quinnipiac 6-6-5?17; Maine 22-5-11?38

Goaltenders: Quinnipiac, Holden (38 shots-36 saves); Maine, Doyle (17-16)

Power-play opportunities: Quinnipiac 0 of 2; Maine 1 of 8

High-percentage scoring chances: Quinnipiac 2-3-4?9; Maine 11-4-13?28

Attendance: 4,719