NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. -University of Maine freshman sensation Jimmy Howard entered Saturday night’s Hockey East game against Merrimack College with the country’s best save percentage at .944.

It now stands at .947 as Howard made 35 saves, including 21 of the Grade-A variety, to lead the Bears to a 2-1 victory over the surprising Merrimack College Warriors at the Volpe Complex Saturday night.

Senior center Robert Liscak scored his team-leading fifth game-winner with 8:53 remaining as Maine improved to 19-2-3 overall, 9-1-2 in Hockey East. He has also assisted on three game-winners.

Merrimack, which outshot an opponent for the first time this season (36-27) and outplayed Maine territorially over the last two periods, fell to 8-10-4 and 5-7-2, respectively.

“Jimmy played a terrific game. He looks very big in net,” said Maine senior center and assistant captain Marty Kariya, who set up Lucas Lawson’s first-period shorthanded goal that stood up until Merrimack senior right wing Ryan Cordeiro re-directed a Tim Reidy pass with 13:02 remaining .

Moments after Cordeiro scored, Merrimack junior center and co-scoring leader Marco Rosa had a breakaway only to be rejected by Howard.

“I had so much time. Sometimes I think too much,” said Rosa who faked a shot before pulling the puck to his backhand.

“He put his leg down and I had nowhere to go with the puck,” said Rosa. “He’s really calm in net.”

“Marty [Kariya] uses that move in practice on me all the time. He comes in and stops and then goes the other way. Marty usually scores on me,” said Howard, who got his left pad on Rosa’s backhander.

As with the earlier two goals, Liscak’s game-winner came off a two-on-one. Liscak received the puck in the neutral zone from defenseman Matt Deschamps before breaking into the offensive zone.

“I tried to get it over to Chris [Heisten] but I didn’t make a good pass,” said Liscak. “Chris was able to get a shot off and I went to the net in case there was a rebound. Their goalie [Joe Exter] played the puck with his stick but he put it right on my stick and I put it in the empty net.”

He said it was somewhat similar to the overtime game-winner he scored against Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament two years ago except that Gopher goalie Adam Hauser actually shot the puck to him.

Exter said he had positioned himself for a one-timer from Heisten and was forced to readjust when Heisten was only able to get off a weak backhander.

“I leaned back and pushed it out the other way with my stick but it went right to their guy. It was a bad play by me,” said Exter.

Maine dominated the first period but Exter came up with eight Grade-A saves among his 12 and the Bears missed a couple of open nets. They also squandered a 1:22 two-man advantage.

Lawson opened the scoring after Kariya intercepted a cross-ice pass and broke out of the defensive zone on a two-on-one.

“Their defenseman stayed in the middle so I faked a shot and saucered it over to Lucas,” said Kariya who watched Lawson push the puck into a half-empty net.

Howard made 10 of his Grade-A saves in the second period as Merrimack had sustained forechecking pressure.

Early in the third period, Tim Reidy rattled a 25-foot slap shot off the underside of the crossbar and, moments later, he set up Cordeiro’s goal after taking a pass from standout freshman defenseman Bryan Schmidt. Reidy slipped a diagonal pass to the far post where the fully extended Cordeiro tapped it home.

The Warriors went on the power play with 1:52 left, pulled Exter in favor of the extra attacker and swarmed the Maine net only to have Howard and his mates block several shots.

“I was hoping they wouldn’t get any shots off. I was dead,” said Howard who hasn’t allowed more than three goals in a game this season.

“It was a good hockey game. We ran into a good goaltender,” said Merrimack coach Chris Serino.

BLACK BEARS 2, WARRIORS 1

Maine (19-2-3) 1 0 1 ? 2

Merrimack (8-10-4) 0 0 1 ? 1

First period ? 1. Maine, Lawson 12 (Kariya), 11:19. Penalties: Mmk, Johnson, cross checking, 5:14; Mmk, Gough, slashing, 5:52; Maine, Heisten, slashing, 10:16; Maine, Heisten, charging, 16:02; Mmk, LaLonde, hooking, 17:57

Second period ? No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Liscak, holding the stick, 2:07; Mmk, Johnson, cross checking, 17:22

Third period ? 2. Mmk, Cordeiro 2 (Reidy, Schmidt), 6:58; 3. Maine, Liscak 10 (Heisten), 11:07. Penalties: Mmk, LaLonde, high sticking, 11:50; Maine, Moore, hooking, 18:08; Maine, Liscak, cross checking, 20:00

Shots on goal: Maine 12-4-11?27; Merrimack 7-14-15? 36

Goaltenders: Maine, Howard (36 shots-35 saves); Merrimack, Exter (27-25)

Power-play Opportunities: Maine 0 of 5; Merrimack 0 of 4

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 14-6-11?31; Merrimack 3-14-17?34

Attendance: 2,933