ORONO – During its recent period of offensive ineptitude, University of Maine men’s hockey coach Shawn Walsh has preached the importance of getting the puck to the net as quickly as possible and driving to the crease hard to create traffic and generate tip-in and rebound chances.

Junior defenseman A.J. Begg and junior center Matthias Trattnig followed the instructions and the result was Begg’s second career goal with 5:05 remaining to sew up Maine’s second straight 5-2 triumph over the University of Massachusetts at Alfond Arena Saturday night.

Maine’s triumph in PenaltyFest 2000 gave the Bears their first two-game winning streak since 4-3 victories over Colorado College and Denver on Dec. 31-Jan. 1. Maine is now 17-7-4 overall, 8-7-3 in Hockey East.

UMass fell to 10-16-4 and 4-13-3 and surrendered five goals in a game, excluding empty-net goals, for the first time this season.

Maine was holding a tenuous 3-2 lead when an errant UMass pass went to Begg at the right point.

Trattnig drove to the front of the net and dueled a defenseman. That created a screen that allowed Begg’s snap shot to beat goalie Markus Helanen to the far post.

“I was just trying to get the puck to the front of the net. With our forwards going to the net, I didn’t know what would happen,” said Begg. “I’m not a goal scorer. It just went in. That’s the bottom line.”

Trattnig said, “I tried to screen the goalie and it went straight in.”

UMass coach Joe Mallen said, “That goal broke the camel’s back.”

Brendan Walsh’s 20-foot slap shot through Helanen’s pads off a Cory Larose pass sewed it up with 1:26 remaining.

The Bears appeared to have the game under complete control 1:01 into the second period when Ben Guite scored his second power-play goal of the game, giving him 12 power-play goals among his 14.

That made it 3-0 and the Bears weren’t allowing the Minutemen much in the way of Grade-A scoring chances.

Dan Kerluke had ended a nine-game pointless streak 2:51 after Guite had opened the scoring 6:28 into the game.

But the Bears, who were assessed 17 minor penalties to UMass’ 15, surrendered a pair of two-man disadvantages in the second period. Moments after Maine goalie Matt Yeats received a standing ovation for making a brilliant stacked pad save off Jeff Blanchard on a two-on-zero with Nathan Sell, Randy Drohan scored on a power-play drive from the right point to make it 3-1.

“One of their guys gave me the shoulder and knocked me out of the way,” said Yeats.

When Darcy King swept a Kris Wallis rebound past Yeats 4:15 into the third period on the power play, tension mounted.

But that would be one of just four high-percentage scoring attempts the Minutemen would have in the third period compared to Maine’s 12.

“After the second period, Coach [Walsh] came into the locker room and wrote `Frustration Management’ on the board and left,” said Kerluke. “I think we handled ourselves pretty well in the third period.”

Guite had opened the scoring by tipping a Michael Schutte point shot behind Helanen, and Kerluke finished off a pretty passing play involving Niko Dimitrakos and Guite by skating around Helanen and sliding a backhander home.

Guite made it 3-0 by squeezing a one-timer through Helanen’s pads off a Barrett Heisten pass.

“We played very, very well five-on-five for the 18 minutes of five-on-five play there was in the game,” quipped Maine coach Walsh. “Our backchecking was the most intense it has been all year and it fueled our offense. Our penalty-killing was terrific and Yeats [23 saves] was superlative.”

Black Bears 5, Minutemen 2

UMass (10-16-4) 0 1 1 – 2 Maine (17-7-4) 2 1 2 – 5

First period – 1. Maine, Guite 13 (Schutte, B. Heisten), 6:28, (pp); 2. Maine, Kerluke 8 (Guite, Dimitrakos), 9:19. Penalties: Maine, Trattnig, elbowing, :55; UMass, Helanan, elbowing (served by Scaparotti), 5:48; UMass, Drohan, high sticking, 11:10; Maine, B. Heisten, high sticking, 11:10; Maine, Larose, hooking, 13:36; UMass, Stephens, holding, 18:19; Maine, B. Heisten, elbowing, 18:19; UMass, Blanchard, cross checking, 19:06.

Second period – 3. Maine, Guite 14 (B. Heisten, Larose), 1:01, (pp); 4. UMass, Drohan 2 (Crumb, King), 16:31, (pp). Penalties: Maine, Janik, high sticking, 2:55; Maine, B. Heisten, hitting from behind, 5:24; Maine, Begg, slashing, 5:28; UMass, T. Turner, hitting after the whistle, 5:28; Maine, Metcalf, hitting after the whistle, 5:28; UMass, Blanchard, slashing, 7:40; Maine, Janik, slashing, 7:40; UMass, Ju. Shaw, hooking, 9:11; UMass, Soderholm, slashing, 11:43; Maine, B. Heisten, high sticking, 13:35; Maine, bench minor on Coach Walsh for unsportsmanlike conduct, (served by Kerluke), 14:54; UMass, Drohan, hooking, 18:28; UMass, Jalkanen, high sticking, 19:32; Maine, Liscak, cross checking, 19:49.

Third period – 5. UMass, King 6 (Wallis, Blanchard), 4:15, (pp); 6. Maine, Begg 2 (Leger, A. Lundback), 14:55; 7. Maine, Walsh 6 (Larose, Lawson), 18:34. Penalties: UMass, Culgin, hitting after the whistle, 3:26; Maine, Leger, hitting after the whistle, 3:26; Maine, Lawson, tripping, 4:00; UMass, Ju. Shaw, holding, 6:21; Maine, Guite, interference, 7:22; UMass, Jalkanen, holding, 13:02; Maine, Larose, roughing, 14:21; UMass, Soderholm, tripping, 16:33; UMass, Wallis, slashing, 19:00; Maine, Walsh, slashing, 19:00.

Shots on goal: UMass 7-9-9 – 25; Maine 7-7-15 – 29

High-percentage scoring chances: UMass 3-6-4 – 13; Maine 5-4-12 – 21

Power-play Opportunities: UMass 2-9, Maine 2-8

Goaltenders: UMass, Helanen (29 shots-24 saves); Maine, Yeats (25-23)

Attendance: 5,641 (sellout)