ORONO – He was the Hockey East Tournament’s Most Valuable Player last year. Two years ago, he was the only freshman chosen to the NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament team.

University of Maine junior left winger Niko Dimitrakos has a flair for late-season dramatics and he showed it again Friday night.

Dimitrakos notched his first career hat trick to power the Black Bears to a 6-3 win over gritty Northeastern University and clinch their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series two games to none.

Second seed Maine is now 19-10-7 overall including a 9-1-1 mark in its last 11 games. The Bears have won all 21 of their Hockey East Tournament games at the Alfond Arena.

Maine will play in the league semifinals at the FleetCenter in Boston at either 5 or 8 p.m. on Friday night. It will be Maine’s fourth straight appearance in the Hockey East semis.

Seventh seed Northeastern finished at 13-19-4 with their fourth straight loss.

“I’ve known Niko a long time and he always thrives this time of year,” said Northeastern sophomore left winger and goal scoring leader Mike Ryan. “We couldn’t contain him tonight.”

Dimitrakos, who missed the first eight games of the season due to injury, said “I’m finally getting my legs so that they’re 100 percent and I’m getting my confidence. I wanted to get to the FleetCenter.”

Dimitrakos scored a pair of first-period goals, one early and one late, to give the Bears a lead they would never relinquish.

Those goals snapped his six-game goal-less drought.

Matthias Trattnig and Chris Heisten gave the Bears a pair of three-goal cushions in the second period but NU’s John Peterman and Eric Ortlip answered to pull the Huskies within 4-2 entering the final 20 minutes.

The Huskies stormed the Bear net in the third period but couldn’t get any closer and Dimitrakos iced it on the power play with 5:26 left. Maine didn’t get its first shot on net in the third period until there was 6:37 remaining.

Dimitrakos opened the scoring with a brilliant individual effort 1:56 into the game.

He wheeled out of the left corner, stickhandled away from a couple of NU defenders and fired a 20-foot wrist shot through a screen into the short side corner.

“I had an open net,” said Dimitrakos.

Maine goalie Matt Yeats came up with several important saves to preserve the 1-0 lead and Dimitrakos made it 2-0 on the power play with a wraparound with seven seconds left in the first period.

“I came down the right wing and faked like I was going to move it to my backhand. Then I skated around the net and tucked it in before he could get over,” said Dimitrakos.

Trattnig made it 3-0 at the 9:37 mark of the middle period with a breakaway off a Mike Schutte pass.

“I just held the puck, the goalie [Mike Gilhooly] went down and I backhanded it over his glove,” said Trattnig.

Peterman got that one back with a one-timer from the top of the right circle off a Jim Fahey dropp pass that squeezed between Yeats’ pads.

But Heisten and Don Richardson, Dimitrakos’ linemates, teamed up to answer 26 seconds later.

Heisten dumped a soft pass into the right corner and Richardson was first one the puck. He threw it across to a wide open Heisten at the far post.

“I chipped it over the goalie’s blocker,” said Heisten.

Dimitrakos also assisted on the goal.

Ortlip scored one minute later, meaning three goals were scored in a span of 1:26, as he got position on Maine defenseman Eric Turgeon busting down the right wing, protected the puck and roofed a short side backhander.

The Huskies generated all kinds of pressure in the third period and Ryan had a glorious chance to pull his team within one when he pounced on a rebound with Yeats out of position.

“But I shot if off the crossbar,” said Ryan.

Maine weathered the storm and Dimitrakos iced it on the power play by taking a Heisten pass, waiting for Gilhooly to come out at him, and snapping a 15-footer over his glove.

NU’s Mike Jozefowicz made it 5-3 with 59 seconds left but Marty Kariya scored into an empty net to conclude a three-point night.

“Maine got a great game out of Niko and we just weren’t skilled enough to finish,” said NU coach Bruce Crowder.

Maine coach Shawn Walsh said, “When the checking gets tighter in the playoffs, Niko seems to get open. He’s a great playoff player. Don Richardson has given his line [with Heisten] a lift. That line scored four goals tonight.

“I really like our line chemistry right now,” added Walsh. “You’ve got to give Northeastern credit for the way they came back in the third period.”

Heisten said it is important for Dimitrakos to get off to a good start like he did Friday night.

Yeats finished with 24 saves on 27 shots while Gilhooly wound up with 16 stops on 21 shots before Kariya’s empty-netter.

“We may not have played well for the whole 60 minutes but we were close to it,” said sophomore center Kariya.

Providence 6, Boston U. 3

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – J.J. Picinic and Devin Rask scored two goals each to lift Providence to a 6-3 win Friday night over Boston University in the first game of a best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series.

Providence (20-10-5) opened up a 3-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game on goals by Jon DiSalvatore, Rask and Stephen Wood.

The early flurry sent BU goalie Jason Tapp to the bench, and he was replaced by Sean Fields.

BU’s Mike Pandalfo made it 3-1 at the end of the first period.

After a scoreless second period, the Friars put the game away with Picinic’s goals at 7:05 and 10:52 of the third.

Pandolfo scored his second and Dan Cavanaugh added goals for BU (13-19-3) in the third. Marc Suderman and Jay Leach had two assists each for Providence.

Boston College 1, Merrimack 0

BOSTON (AP) – Tony Voce’s goal at 1:16 of the second period was the difference in Boston College’s 1-0 victory over Merrimack Friday night in the first game of a best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series.

Brooks Orpik picked up the puck along the boards and passed in front of the net where Chuck Kobesaw tipped it to Voce for the goal.

The rest was up to BC (27-8-2) goalkeeper Scott Clemmensen, who stopped 21 shots for his third shutout of the season and the 13th of his career.

Tom Welby made 31 saves for Merrimack (14-19-4).

Black Bears 6, Huskies 3

Northeastern (13-9-4) 0 2 1 ? 3

Maine (19-10-7) 2 2 2 ? 6

First period ? 1. Maine, Dimitrakos 9 (Richardson, Heisten), 1:56; 2. Maine, Dimitrakos (Kariya, Janik), 19:53, (pp). Penalties: NU, Selig, roughing, 3:47; Maine, Loya, roughing, 3:47; Maine, Metcalf, interference, 6:03; NU, Levesque, roughing, 6:10; Maine, Begg, roughing, 6:10; NU, Levesque, obstruction interference, 17:58.

Second period ? 3. Maine, Trattnig 11 (Schutte, Kariya), 9:37; 4. NU, Peterman 4 (Fahey, Mastronardi), 14:39, (pp); 5. Maine, Heisten 5 (Richardson, Dimitrakos), 15:05; 6. NU, Ortlip 4 (Jozefowicz), 16:05. Penalties: Maine, Clauson, obstruction interference, 10:47; Maine, Trattnig, hooking, 12:53.

Third period ? 7. Maine, Dimitrakos 11 (Heisten, Janik), 14:34, (pp); 8. NU, Jozefowicz 3 (Fahey, Mischler, 19:01 (ex); 9. Maine, Kariya 12, (Trattnig), 19:43; Penalties: Maine, Begg, roughing, 0:18; NU, Mischler, roughing, 0:18; Maine, Janik, hooking, 7:05; NU, Lynch, cross-checking, 10:35; NU, Lynch, 10-minute misconduct, 10:35; Maine, Metcalf, hooking, 10:47; NU, Peterman, hitting after whistle, 13:23

Shots on goal: NU 6-12-9?27; Maine 6-12-4?22

Goaltenders: NU, Gilhooly (22 shots-16 saves); Maine, Yeats (27-24)

Power-play Opportunities: NU 1 of 5; Maine 2 of 3

Attendance: 4,123