DURHAM, N.H. – It was a frustrating Saturday night for the University of Maine men’s hockey team.

The Black Bears lost workhorse goaltender Ben Bishop to a groin strain early in the second period, seldom-used backup Dave Wilson allowed two power-play goals in his first 8:27 before settling down, and UNH goalie Kevin Regan made a career-high 46 saves as the nation’s No. 1 team beat Maine 2-1.

UNH improved to 20-5-1 overall, 15-3-1 in Hockey East, while Maine fell to 17-8-2 and 10-8-1, respectively. Maine had beaten UNH 4-2 in Manchester, N.H., on Friday night.

“We played hard from start to finish,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. “I was pleased with the effort but disappointed with the result.”

Twenty of Regan’s saves were of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety, including several during a second-period stretch in which Maine had a 4-on-3 power play for 1:29 followed by a regular 5-on-4 for the remaining 3:31 courtesy of a five-minute charging major on Smith.

“That was a real big turning point,” said Maine freshman right winger Teddy Purcell, who scored Maine’s goal on the power play in the first period when he shoveled Michel Leveille’s pass into an empty net. “[Leveille] hit the crossbar, Regan took a couple shots off his head. He did a real nice job staying composed and making the big saves when they needed them.”

Purcell had a chance to tie it up with two minutes left in the third period when he cleverly maneuvered around UNH defenseman Craig Switzer only to be denied by the crossbar.

“It seemed like it happened real quick. I was on top of [Regan] in a hurry, I went to my forehand and hit the crossbar,” said Purcell.

Regan said Switzer got caught flat-footed, “but he got enough of [Purcell] so he didn’t get a great shot off. He kind of chipped it and didn’t have a lot of control on it. It caught the edge of the post.”

“Regan was unbelievable tonight,” said UNH junior right wing Matt Fornataro, who tied the game 7:06 into the second period and set up center Mike Radja’s game-winner 4:34 later. “I’ve never seen him like that. He’s a great goalie, but he was above and beyond that tonight. He was great in that five-minute penalty.”

Regan said, “I didn’t have one of my best games [Friday] night and I wanted to come out and have a good game tonight and that’s what I did.”

“This was definitely my best game of the year,” added Regan. “I was surprised I finished with 46 saves. It didn’t seem like I was peppered. They took a lot of shots from outside. There weren’t a lot of 2-on-1s or breakaways.”

He felt bad for Bishop – to a point.

“You never want to see that happen, especially me in my position. It’s really tough. He was playing great,” said Regan. “At the same time, those points were important. We needed to take advantage [of his injury], as bad as that is to say. We kind of jumped on it.”

Bishop (17 saves) was hurt 1:47 into the second period when he was flattened by New Hampshire’s Trevor Smith, who received a charging minor for the hit. Bishop tried to play through it, but he said it was too painful “and I would have hurt the team [by playing].” He came out 1:26 later in favor of Wilson.

Fornataro tied it 3:53 after that from the left faceoff circle as he one-timed a diagonal pass from Switzer into the short side.

“We wanted to get pucks on net to test him early and, fortunately, we went on a power play [right away],” said Fornataro.

“On the first pass, I backed in a little bit and on the pass over to my blocker side, I backed in even more,” Wilson said. “I gave him that whole [blocker] side. I was way too far over to my glove side and back too deep.”

Fornataro created the second one by walking off the boards to Wilson’s right before snapping a shot that was tipped by Jacob Micflikier and squirted through Wilson to Radja.

“It was just sitting there. All I had to do was poke it in,” said Radja.

“I thought I had it under my arm, glove side, but I guess it squeezed through,” said Wilson, who was sharp the rest of the way and finished with 21 saves.

“That’s about as tough a situation as you can have and he played great. He really did. He kept them in it,” said Regan, who robbed Mike Hamilton by smothering his one-timer off a Josh Soares pass with 30 seconds left.

WILDCATS 2, BLACK BEARS 1

Maine (17-8-2) 1 0 0 – 1

New Hampshire (20-5-1) 0 2 0 – 2

First period – 1. Maine, Purcell 14 (Leveille), 12:24 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Ramsey, interference, :25; UNH, Mcflikier, hitting after whistle, 6:10; UNH, Switzer, slashing, 7:05; UNH, Murray, high-sticking, 11:00; Maine, Ramsey, contact to head-roughing, 15:38.

Second period – 2. UNH, Fornataro 12 (Switzer, Flaishans), 7:06 (pp); 3. UNH, Radja 15 (Micflikier, Fornataro), 11:40 (pp). Penalties: UNH, Smith, charging and roughing, 1:47; Maine, Soares, hitting after whistle, 1:47; Maine, Plaszcz, hitting after whistle, 1:47; UNH, Fritsch, hitting after whistle, 1:47; Maine, Ryan, roughing, 1:47; Maine, Bellamy, hitting after whistle, 2:03; UNH, Switzer, cross-checking, 2:37; UNH, Ciocco, hooking, 3:55; Maine, Leveille, unsportsmanlike conduct-diving, 3:55; Maine, Duffy, tripping, 6:57; UNH, Charlebois, holding, 7:46; Maine, Plaszcz, tripping, 9:54; Maine, Tyler, hitting after whistle, 12:51; UNH, Pollastrone, slashing, 12:51; UNH, Smith, 5-min. major, charging, 13:22.

Third period – No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Laise, hitting after whistle, 5:58; UNH, Charlebois, hitting after whistle, 5:58; UNH, Murray, charging, 14:30.

Shots on goal: Maine 14-18-15-47; UNH 15-12-13-40

Goaltenders: Maine, Bishop (17 shots-17 saves), Wilson (3:13 of 2nd, 23-21); UNH, Regan (47-46)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 1 of 7; UNH 2 of 5

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 9-11-9-29; UNH 10-7-6-23

Attendance: 6,501