DURHAM, N.H. – The University of Maine Black Bears are in dire need of wins over nationally ranked teams to move up the PairWise rankings that ultimately determine the at-large teams for the NCAA Tournament.

That’s exactly what they earned Friday night as freshman left wing Billy Ryan collected the first two-goal game of his career and junior goalie Jimmy Howard made 28 saves, including 11 in the third period, to spark the Bears to a 3-1 Hockey East win over the University of New Hampshire.

It was UNH’s first loss at the Whittemore Center this season. UNH had been 12-0 at the Whittemore Center and had lost just once to UM over the last eight meetings in Durham (6-1-1).

Maine extended its unbeaten streak to eight games (5-0-3) and its Hockey East unbeaten skein to 12 games (8-0-4).

UNH’s Preston Callander scored the game’s first goal before Ryan tied it later in the first period and gave Maine the lead for good 6:55 into the second period. Freshman defenseman Bret Tyler extended the lead at the 10:16 mark of the middle period.

Maine is now 15-8-6 overall, 10-3-4 in Hockey East. UNH fell to 17-7-3 and 10-3-2 in Hockey East. The teams will meet against Saturday night at 7.

“This was our best win of the season,” said Howard.

Maine junior defenseman Steve Mullin said the Bear forwards did an exceptional job backchecking “so we could play their forwards one-on-one. If we turned the puck over, our forwards were always coming back to help out. You could probably count on one hand the number of odd-man rushes [three-on-twos, two-on-ones] they had. We always had numbers coming back.”

“Maine played well,” said UNH coach Dick Umile, whose Wildcats averaged five goals per game at the Whittemore Center before Friday. “They blocked a lot of shots. They did a very good job blocking shots. And we didn’t shoot enough.”

Maine finished with 11 blocked shots.

“We had a third guy high [in the offensive zone] so they couldn’t generate odd-man rushes,” said Howard.

Ryan tied the game with 3:15 left in the first period, 4:06 after Callander had started the scoring.

Ryan scored his first goal since Maine’s 1-1 tie with St. Cloud State on Dec. 28 off a two-on-one with Keenan Hopson after a UNH defenseman fell. The third member of the new all-freshman line, Rob Bellamy, set the play in motion by chipping the puck to Hopson.

Hopson carried the puck into the UNH zone with Ryan trailing and then slid it back to Ryan, who took a stride and wristed a 12-footer past the blocker of Jeff Pietrasiak.

“Keenan made the play,” said Ryan. “He took the defenseman with him and passed it over. I think their defenseman [Robbie Barker] screened the goalie. I put it far side.”

Callander had opened the scoring with an easy tap-in off a pinpoint pass from defenseman Chris Murray, who received the puck from Sean Collins.

Ryan broke the tie following some impressive work with Hopson during a four-on-four.

Hopson came off the ice on a line change and Greg Moore replaced him to help Ryan keep UNH pinned in its own end.

“[Jacob] Micfliker tried to clear it out but Greg deflected it and it came to me,” said Ryan, who gathered the puck in the faceoff circle to Pietrasiak’s left and cut across the low slot. “I waited for Micfliker to slide past me and I put it in.”

Ryan’s 11-foot wrister squeezed between Pietrasiak’s pads and trickled over the line.

Tyler’s fourth goal of the season came off an errant clear by the Wildcats.

Tyler kept the puck in at the left point and his wrister appeared to be sailing over the net when it hit UNH’s Andrew Leach in front and dropped down behind Pietrasiak.

UNH stormed the Bear net in the latter stages of the third period but Howard was equal to the task.

He made a great left-pad save off Brett Hemingway from the middle of the slot with 4:10 left and, two minutes later, he alertly threw out his glove and snared Collins’ point-blank backhander.

BLACK BEARS 3, WILDCATS 1

Maine (15-8-6) 1 2 0 – 3

New Hampshire (17-7-3) 1 0 0 – 1

First period – 1. UNH, Callander 17 (Murray, Collins), 12:39; 2. Maine, Ryan 4 (Hopson, Bellamy), 16:45. Penalties: UNH, Teplitsky, obstruction-interference, :13; Maine, Tyler, contact to the head-roughing, 17:08.

Second period – 3. Maine, Ryan 5 (Moore), 6:55; 4. Maine, Tyler (unassisted), 10:16. Penalties: Maine, Ramsey, cross checking, 6:04; UNH, Fornataro, hitting after the whistle, 6:04; UNH, Winnik, slashing, 19:59.

Third period -. No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Damon, obstruction interference, 3:16; Maine, Barnes, obstruction interference, 8:59; UNH, Barker, obstruction interference, 9:30; Maine, Johnson, tripping, 17:50

Shots on goal: Maine 10-11-3-24; UNH 9-9-11-29

Goaltenders: Maine, Howard (29 shots-28 saves); UNH, Pietrasiak (24 shots-21 saves)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 0 of 3; UNH 0 of 4

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 6-6-4-16; UNH 9-6-8-23

Attendance: 6,501