AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Maine men’s hockey team, which seemed well on its way to a ninth straight NCAA Tournament berth after an 8-0-1 start, now finds itself on the brink of elimination following Saturday night’s 5-3 loss to Massachusetts at the Mullins Center.

Senior center Matt Anderson converted an errant clear by Josh Soares into a tie-breaking power-play goal 7:53 into the third period and the Minutemen completed the weekend sweep to earn the right to host Maine in their best-of-three quarterfinal series beginning Friday night.

Fourth-seeded UMass finished the regular season with an 18-11-5 record, 15-9-3 in Hockey East, while the fifth-seeded Black Bears wound up a disappointing 21-12-4, 14-12-1 in Hockey East.

Unlike Friday night’s 3-1 loss in which the Minutemen were clearly the better team, Maine had a significant territorial advantage on Saturday as evidenced by its 35-23 shots-on-goal margin. Maine attempted 71 shots to UMass’ 47.

But the Minutemen were opportunistic and sophomore goalie Jon Quick was stellar, particularly in the second period when he made six of his eight Grade-A (high-percentage) saves. He finished with 32 stops.

“It’s tough. I think we deserved a better outcome tonight. But these things happen,” said Soares, a senior left wing and assistant captain who was distraught over his turnover.

“I tried to shoot it, but the puck rolled on me. I couldn’t get it up. I looked up and it was right on [Anderson’s stick]. I tried to get out there, but [he shot it] too quickly and he buried it,” said Soares, who assisted on two of Maine’s goals.

“I had started creeping in and the puck popped out to me,” said Anderson, who was between the faceoff dots. “I got a pretty good read on it, I picked my head up and I drilled it. I got pretty good wood on it.”

Maine freshman backup goalie Dave Wilson, playing in place of the injured Ben Bishop (groin pull), was cleanly beaten over his glove.

“I didn’t expect it, but … I challenged up and I was set. I reacted too slow,” said Wilson, who wound up with 18 saves, including nine Grade-A’s.

The goal deflated the Bears, and UMass did an effective job clogging up the neutral zone and limiting Maine’s scoring chances.

Junior right wing Matt Burto supplied a valuable insurance goal on the power play with 2:52 remaining as he crashed the netfront unattended and swiped home an Alex Berry rebound.

Berry had tied the game with 5:45 left in the second period when he was left alone at the far post and was set up beautifully by Cory Quirk and Chris Capraro for a tap-in goal.

Billy Ryan poked home a Mike Hamilton centering pass on the power play with 1:16 left in regulation to pull Maine within one, but the Bears couldn’t draw level. Freshman Brett Watson scored his first college goal into an empty net with two seconds left.

UMass’ Mark Matheson opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal on a two-on-one at the 18:37 mark of the first period as he carried the puck down the slot and wristed it past Wilson to the low blocker side.

Michel Leveille answered on a five-on-three advantage 58 seconds later when he one-timed a Mike Lundin pass over Quick’s glove into the short-side corner.

Leveille made it 2-1 5:49 into the second period when he tipped Travis Ramsey’s point shot past Quick. It was his sixth two-goal game of the season.

Just 2:25 later, Leveille had a great chance to make it 3-1. He was left alone to Quick’s left and tried to wrist it upstairs only to have Quick, who was on his side, elevate his leg to kick it out.

“I didn’t think he’d be able to bring his leg up like he did. He made a really great save,” said Leveille.

In the ensuing flurry, Bret Tyler fired the puck into the net, but it was waved off because Teddy Purcell was ruled to have made a hand pass to Tyler.

“If that had counted, I think we would have rolled on to victory. Quick was the difference tonight,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

Whitehead added that he was “proud of how we played but disappointed with the outcome.

“Hockey is such a game of momentum. We had maybe our best shift of the night on their tying goal [by Berry]. Leveille’s line [with Purcell and Brent Shepheard] dominated the play, but then they slapped the puck off the boards, got into a foot race, one of our guys [Simon Danis-Pepin] backs into our goalie, and the puck is in the net.”

MINUTEMEN 5, BLACK BEARS 3

Maine (21-12-2) 1 1 1 – 3

UMass (18-11-5) 1 1 3 – 5

First period – 1. UMass, Matheson 13 (Fenton, Quirk), 18:37 (sh); 2. Maine, Leveille 17 (Lundin, Soares), 19:35 (pp). Penalties: UMass, Crowder, boarding, 2:16; Maine, Bellamy, hitting from behind, 8:46; Maine, Bellamy, tripping, 12:00; Maine, Soares, goaltender interference, 16:32; UMass, too many players on the ice (served by Virtue), 17:45; UMass, Kostka, tripping, 19:10.

Second period – 3. Maine, Leveille 18 (Ramsey, Duffy), 5:49; 4. UMass, Berry 5 (Capraro, Quirk), 14:15. Penalties: UMass, Anderson, hooking, 1:45.

Third period – 5. UMass, Anderson 8 (unassisted), 7:53 (pp); 6. UMass, Burto (Berry, Fenton), 17:08 (pp); 7. Maine, Ryan 10 (Hamilton, Soares), 18:44 (pp); 8. UMass, Watson 1 (unassisted), 19:58 (en). Penalties: UMass, Jarman, hitting from behind, 4:37; Maine, Hamilton, hooking, 7:04; Maine, Duffy, interference, 15:14; UMass, Davis, interference, 17:32.

Shots on goal: Maine 11-18-6-35; UMass 4-7-12-23

Goaltenders: Maine, Wilson (22 shots, 18 saves); UMass, Quick (35-32)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 2 of 6, UMass 2 of 5

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 4-11-5-20; UMass 2-8-6-16

Attendance: 8,221