BOSTON – Boston College Coach Len Ceglarski has guided his Eagles to a lot of important wins over the University of Maine in his 20 years at BC, including two in Hockey East Tournament finals.

But, the UM Black Bears were not to be denied in their Hockey East semifinal here Thursday night as they scored the game’s final five goals to bring the curtain down on the Eagles and the retiring Ceglarski 7-3 at the Boston Garden.

Maine, now 30-3-2, will play the winner of the Providence-New Hampshire game in Saturday’s 8 p.m. final here. Maine outshot BC 39-24.

BC wound up 14-18-3.

The Black Bears broke the game open by scoring four goals in a span of 7:28 over the end of the second period and the start of the third period.

Randy Olson and Scott Pellerin scored 1:12 apart in the second period to give Maine the lead for good and Jean-Yves Roy (27 seconds) and Matt Martin (2:22) made it 6-3 early in the third period.

“This was such a nice win but I feel sad because of Lenny,” said Maine Coach Shawn Walsh. “Lenny is a great person and ambassador of the game. I’m sad that he’s leaving us.”

After spotting the Bears a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Chris Imes (power play) and Pellerin, the upstart Eagles took a 3-2 lead on Jack Callahan’s first-period goal and second-period goals 27 seconds apart by Marc Beran (power play) and John Joyce.

BC took three consecutive penalties and Eagle goalie Scott LaGrand made several great saves until Bear senior right winger Olson triggered the flurry on the third power play at the 14:54 mark.

Olson took a pass from Jim Montgomery in the corner to LaGrand’s left and cut to the front of the net. Cal Ingraham was open at the far post.

“I’d been watching him (LaGrand) the whole game and he would make his move to cover the pass before the pass was made,” said Olson. “So I stuffed it between his pads.”

“As soon as I moved my stick, he stuffed it. It was a good play,” said LaGrand.

Pellerin, who had broken Gary Conn’s UM career record for points with 222nd, coming on his first-period goal, made it 4-3 off a two-on-one with Kent Salfi.

Pellerin picked up the puck at center ice after BC’s Dave Franzosa had been hauled down and broke down the right wing.

“Their defenseman slid over to cover Kent so that left me in a one-on-one with LaGrand,” said Pellerin. “He’s a hyper goal so if you make a fake, he opens up his legs. I slid it through his legs.”

“He beat me,” said LaGrand.

At the outset of the third period, Roy capitalized off a three-on-one involving Imes and Jim Montgomery.

Roy made a pass over to Imes that deflected off his stick to Montgomery, who made a quick pass back to the wide-open Roy at the far post.

“Jimmy made a heads-up play and I knew I had to bury it up top,” said Roy, whose seven-footer broke Conn’s career goal-scoring mark as it was his 108th.

Martin got Maine’s third power-play goal of the game when the clever Ingraham made a perfect pass out to him from behind the net and Martin fired a low 25-footer inside the far post.

The Bears played airtight defense the rest of the way, Bear goalie Garth Snow came up with a few nice saves and Ingraham capped his first four-point night (one goal, three assists) with a late goal from the middle of the slot.

Imes had opened the scoring with a nifty little backhander over the sprawled LaGrand off a Patrice Tardif pass. Pellerin converted an Ingraham pass on a breakaway with a 16-footer to the glove side.

Callahan beat Snow with a 15-footer off a Sal Manganaro pass from the right point and, in the second period, a David Franzosa pass deflected in off Beran’s skate and Joyce converted a three-on-two with a 26-footer between Snow’s pads off a Jason Rathbone pass.

“Our defense played really, really solid,” said Walsh. “They shut them down in five-on-five situations. They stepped up well. And I’ve got to give credit to Dr. Wayne Halliwell, the team psychologist for the Vancouver Canucks. He talked to our team a few weeks ago and one of his big things was that he told our kids to be resilient.

“When we got behind 3-2, we stayed poised,” added Walsh.

“Our defense, by stepping up as well as they did, made it so the forwards had to come back only as far as the red line and that made a big difference,” said Olson.

“I didn’t want it to end,” said the 65-year-old Ceglarski, who had been the head coach at Clarkson for 14 years before coming to BC. “But if it had to end, I’m glad it ended in our league against the number one team in the country.

“For two periods, we played as hard and as well as we could have. But, in the third period, Maine showed its superiority in all aspects of the game,” added Ceglarski. “Maine has had a great record all year and we did a good job to play as well as we did against them.”

Black Bears 7, Eagles 3

Maine 2 2 3 – 7 Boston College 1 2 0 – 3

First period – 1. Maine, Imes 3 (Tardif, Ingraham), 5:05; 2. Maine, Pellerin 31 (Ingraham), 7:42; 3. BC, Callahan 15 (Manganaro), 8:40; Penalties – BC, Cleary, interference, 3:58

Second period – 4. BC, Beran 22 (Joyce, Franzosa), 10:00; 5. BC, Joyce 9 (Rathbone, Cleary), 10:37; 6. Maine, Olson 10 (Montgomery, Martin), 14:54; 7. Maine, Pellerin 32 (Salfi), 16:26; Penalties – Maine, Imes, hooking, 7:37; Maine, Martin, roughing, 8:17; BC, Hall, cross-checking, 10:48; BC, Beran, delay of game, 12:24; BC, Moran, holding, 13:29; Maine, Montgomery, hooking, 18:11

Third period – 8. Maine, Roy 32 (Montgomery, Imes), 0:27; 9. Maine, Martin 4 (Olson, Ingraham), 2:22; 10. Maine, Ingraham 15 (Mercier), 17:43; Penalties – BC, Pascucci, cross-checking, 0:27; BC, Canavan, high-sticking, 7:44; Maine, Weinrich, holding, 7:44; Maine, Roy, interference, 11:29; BC, Cleary, roughing, 11:48; Maine, Ingraham, high-sticking, 15:18

Shots on goal: Maine 11-14-14-36; BC 9-7-8-24

Goaltenders: Maine, Garth Snow; BC, Scott LaGrand and Josh Singewald