ORONO – The bully-boy foolishness ended Sunday night. Well, almost.

Spencer Abbott, Joey Diamond and their teammates didn’t turn the other cheek, but they did turn away when Merrimack College tried to goad them into the penalty box for a second straight game.

Call it the power of poise. The University of Maine, not Merrimack, is going to the TD Garden next weekend for the Hockey East semifinals. Maine beat Merrimack 2-1 to win the best-of-three quarterfinals.

Even better, the victory saved Maine from some anxiety. The Black Bears couldn’t score points in the selection process for the NCAA regionals if they were sitting in Orono this Friday and Saturday while Hockey East is deciding its postseason champion.

That’s why the faithful filed into Alfond Arena for a third straight night. Maine won the first game Friday night, but lost the second Saturday when both teams set records for penalties thanks to a grab bag of penalties for hitting after the whistle, roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct.

Merrimack used an old trick. If you don’t have the offensive skills to beat a good team, be offensive. Mud is the great equalizer and Saturday night, both teams were rolling in it.

Merrimack waved the bait and Maine bit. And lost a big game. Now Maine had to take its best shots at goalie Joe Cannata again. He gives up an average of two goals per game, and that’s what Maine was hitting.

Sunday, Maine players made a few unneccesary trips to the penalty box. A few is a lot different from many.

Maine kept Merrimack back on its heels by pushing the puck again and again into the Merrimack end. Cannata cracked only twice. When the trailing team in hockey turns desperate, you don’t want to be looking at a one-goal lead late in the third period.

Which is why there was the sound of relief amid the celebration when Maine won.

No other team in the state — and that includes the three professional teams in Portland — arouses fans like Maine hockey. The connection with this team is visceral. The cheering is louder, the chest-thumping is harder when Maine hockey wins.

The scorn and the criticism is more biting when they lose. UMaine football has been a better story, lately, with its last-minute victories and visits to the NCAA playoffs.

Men’s basketball at Maine is still an afterthought. The women’s basketball team created a little buzz this winter with improved play. The baseball team is still working to recapture the glory of the John Winkin-coached teams from the last decades of the previous century. Now that’s a long time.

The hockey team’s two national titles, won in 1993 and 1999, still trump everything else.

Never mind that the players on this Maine team were toddlers when the first championship was won and in grade school for the second.

They’re measured by the fans who fill Alfond Arena who do have first-hand memories. They won’t be satisfied until a third trophy joins the other two.

That’s why Sunday night’s game had a big-game feel to it, even if some still can’t put Merrimack on the same level with the best in Hockey East.

Don’t say that to the Merrimack students, most in golden yellow t-shirts, who filled one complete section near the arena entrance. Three buses carried some 150 of them to the long weekend of games in Orono. That cheering section raised temperatures in the arena a couple degrees.

Two-game sweeps by Maine over Boston College and Boston University earlier in the season awakened hope, and frankly, a bit of cynicism among the locals. Maine hockey has disappointed its fans just when the big rewards are in sight.

Sunday night there was no disappointment. Maine got the job done.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com

Twitter: SteveSolloway