DURHAM, N.H. — For every Maine mistake Saturday, there was a New Hampshire goal.

Cough up the puck at your blue line, the Wildcats will convert the ensuing three-on-two.

Break your stick and head to the bench for a new one, New Hampshire will happily blast home another goal.

Drop an aimless pass into the slot, watch another tally go up on the scoreboard.

It was that kind of night for the Black Bears, and the result was a 5-2 loss before an announced crowd of 6,003 at the Whittemore Center. It was New Hampshire’s first victory over Maine in four meetings, coming one night after the teams skated to a 3-3 tie in Orono.

It was Maine’s first loss in its past six games.

“A team like UNH, they prey on those kinds of mistakes with the puck,” Maine Coach Red Gendron said. “They certainly hurt us with that tonight.”

The Wildcats (5-6-4, 2-1-4 Hockey East) scored 3:29 into the game when Andrew Poturalski’s shot from the slot, after a Maine turnover, skittered between the legs of Maine goaltender Rob McGovern.

The freshman was making his first start in six games after junior Matt Morris had gone 4-0-1 in relief.

“The kid had played well before he was injured and I wanted to get him a game before we went to semester break,” Gendron said.

McGovern got better after that shaky goal but his teammates didn’t exactly have his back. New Hampshire’s Maxim Gaudreault skated in alone when Maine left him uncovered and beat McGovern from the left circle for a 2-0 lead.

As he did Friday, Black Bears center Cedric Lacroix brought his team within 2-1. Parked at the left side of the crease again, Lacroix made eye contact with winger Andrew Tegeler along the right boards and tipped in the ensuing pass.

“That’s kind of my office, I like to say. I just kind of stay around the net,” Lacroix said after his third goal of the year. “If you want money, you go to the bank, right? That’s my bank and I want the money.”

By the time Maine cashed in again, however, New Hampshire had a 4-1 lead. The Black Bears controlled the puck throughout the second period, but New Hampshire caught them off-guard again to score at 13:22 when Tyler Kelleher took a long pass and skated in for a shot that McGovern stopped. Gaudreault gathered the rebound and carried it from right to left, pulling McGovern out of position to score his second goal of the night.

The Wildcats increased the lead to 4-1 on a power-play goal by Ara Nazarian at 15:45 of the period. He banged in a rebound from just outside the crease. New Hampshire also scored two goals with the man advantage Friday.

This time there was no immediate response from the Black Bears (4-9-4, 2-5-1).

“There was a stretch in the third period where I thought our team was lacking energy,” Gendron said.

“We acted for a good portion of the third period like, ‘Oh, shoot, we’re not going to win this game.’ Well, we can’t ever act like that.”

The Black Bears pulled McGovern and Steven Swavely scored at 17:23 of the third period to cut the deficit to 4-2. Poturalski then scored into an empty net to ice it with 43.6 seconds left.

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