ORONO – The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s unbeaten season came to a resounding halt Sunday afternoon and the statistics told the story.

Through two periods, Maine had outshot the University of New Hampshire 27-12 but the Bears were trailing 5-2.

The Wildcats received superb 33-save goaltending from junior Kevin Regan and proved to be the consummate opportunists as they routed the Bears 8-2 at Alfond Arena.

UNH improved to 5-2-1 overall while Maine, which had been ranked No. 1 in the country, fell to 8-1-1. Both teams are 3-1-1 in Hockey East.

Maine outshot UNH 35-23.

It was the most goals allowed by the Bears at Alfond Arena since March 24, 1989 when Providence beat them 8-6 in the first game of their best-of-three NCAA Tournament series.

Maine sophomore goalie Ben Bishop allowed six goals on just 19 shots over 54:26 and shouldered the blame.

“It wasn’t my best night. I’ll take responsibility for the loss,” said Bishop. “I’m just going to look ahead to BC [next Sunday] and forget about this game.”

UNH coach Dick Umile said, “We have some goal scorers and we made the best of our scoring opportunities.”

Junior center Mike Radja sandwiched a pair of first-period goals around a power play goal by Jacob Micflikier to stake the Wildcats to a 3-0 lead. His second goal was shorthanded and came with one second left in the period and 46 seconds after a Maine goal was waved off because the whistle had blown.

Michel Leveille’s power-play goal 2:17 into the second period on a screened wrister gave the Bears some life but Craig Switzer answered 3:58 later when his wrister from the left point deflected off a Maine stick and beat Bishop.

Mike Hamilton reduced the lead to 4-2 on the power play as he backhanded home a rebound but UNH again answered to stunt Maine’s momentum with 6:07 left in the period as Bishop mishandled the puck and Matt Fornataro stole it and fed it to Bobby Butler, who converted from the middle of the slot.

“That was a huge goal,” said Umile.

Fornataro had just come out of the penalty box and knew Bishop likes to play the puck.

“I tried to force him. He just laid the puck there and I got it and threw it out front to Bobby. I heard him yelling,” said Fornataro.

Bishop said he was trying to bank the puck off the boards so his defenseman could break it out.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Bishop.

Regan made a clutch right- pad save off Keenan Hopson’s 20-foot wrister later in the period to preserve the 5-2 lead.

Maine outshot UNH 20-3 in the second period thanks to six straight power-play chances.

“Kevin played great all night. He was there when we needed it,” said Fornataro.

“They didn’t give us much in that second period but we did a good job burying our chances,” said Regan. “Our fourth goal took a lucky bounce but sometimes that’s what you need to beat a good team like Maine.”

Chris Murray, Fornataro and Trevor Smith added third-period goals.

Radja opened the scoring by converting on a breakaway off a Brett Hemingway pass.

“I wanted to go glove side but I saw the whole blocker side [open],” said Radja.

Micflikier scored 2:17 later when his seemingly harmless backhander from a tough angle trickled through Bishop.

“That was my fault. It went off my pad and stick and in,” said Bishop.

Radja made it 3-0 when he carried the puck on a two-on-one with Shawn Vinz and roofed a wrister over Bishop’s blocker into the far corner.

“It seemed like every time we had momentum, we would shoot ourselves in the foot or they would make a great play. We couldn’t get over that hill to get our momentum rolling downhill,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

“All the credit to them. They’re a real good transition team. We gave up too many odd-man rushes and they capitalized on their chances,” said Leveille.

WILDCATS 8, BLACK BEARS 2

New Hampshire (5-2-1) 3 2 3 – 8

Maine (8-1-1) 0 2 0 – 2

First period – 1. UNH, Radja 6 (Micflikier), 7:02; 2. UNH, Micflikier 3 (Radja, Regan), 9:19 (pp); 3. UNH, Radja 7 (unassisted), 19:59 (sh); Penalties: Maine, Bellamy, holding, 1:06; Maine, Hamilton, contact to the head-roughing, 7:52; Maine, Soares, roughing, 12:10; UNH, Vinz, roughing, 12:10; UNH, Micflikier, hooking, 18:04.

Second period – 4. Maine, Leveille 9 (Lundin, Soares), 2:17 (pp); 5. UNH, Switzer 2 (Smith), 6:15; 6. Maine, Hamilton 1 (Lundin, Leveille), 8:26 (pp); 7. UNH, Butler 2 (Fornataro), 13:53. Penalties: Maine, Clark, roughing, hitting after the whistle, 10-minute misconduct, 1:34; Maine, Bellamy, roughing, hitting after the whistle, 10-minute misconduct, 1:34; UNH, Fritsch, roughing, hitting after the whistle, 10-minute misconduct, 1:34; UNH, Murray, roughing, hitting after the whistle, 10-minute misconduct, 1:34; UNH, Fortney, obstruction-holding, 2:04; UNH, Flaishans, hooking, 2:51; UNH, Flaishans, cross checking, 7:54; UNH, Foster, hooking, 11:44; UNH, LeBlanc, hitting from behind, 16:55; Maine, Shepheard, roughing, 18:08; UNH, Flaishans, roughing, 18:08; UNH, Charlebois, holding the stick, 19:15.

Third period – 8. UNH, Murray 3 (Switzer, Micflikier), 14:26 (pp); 9. UNH, Fornataro 3 (Smith), 14:51; 10. UNH, Smith 9 (Fornatro, Charlebois), 17:37. Penalties: UNH, Ciocco, contact to the head-high sticking, 2:21; Maine, Purcell, hitting from behind, 13:20; Maine, Shepheard, slashing, 15:33; Maine, Bellamy, slashing, 17:11; UNH, Murray, holding, 19:07.

Shots on goal: UNH 9-3-11-23; Maine 7-20-8-35

Goaltenders: UNH, Regan (35 shots-33 saves); Maine, Bishop (19-13), Wilson (14:26 of 3rd, 4-2)

Power-play opportunities: UNH 2-4, Maine 2-9

High-percentage scoring chances: UNH 6-1-6-13; Maine 5-10-6-21

Attendance: 5,450