This was the Black Bear opportunity to send a message to the rest of Hockey East.

They sent a message alright, and not one they were pleased with as Merrimack College upended the University of Maine, 6-2, at Lawler Arena on Friday night.

Jesse Todd scored two power-play goals and Kyle Bigos added the game-winner in a five-goal second period for the seventh-ranked team in the nation.

The Black Bears, who had won seven of its last eight games, fell to 10-7-2 (7-7-1 Hockey East) on the season as they had their four-game winning streak snapped.

Early in the second period, Merrimack scored their third unanswered goal to Maine down 3-0, creating a huge hole for the Black Bears to overcome.

Just over a minute into the middle frame, Warriors’ defenseman Kyle Bigos used the traffic in front of Maine goalie Dan Sullivan to his team’s advantage, sending the puck through the crowd and past the netminder to pull ahead 3-0.

On a Mark Nemec hooking penalty, Merrimack went on a man-advantage 6:54 into the period and just five seconds into the power play, the Warriors scored their fourth goal of the game as Jesse Todd scored on a one-timer setup from teammates Ryan Flanigan and Karl Stollery.

A few minutes later, Maine was finally able to get on the board with a power-play goal near the midway mark in the second period.

Maine freshman forward John Parker scored his first career collegiate goal by salvaging a misfired pass intended for Brian Flynn, bring the bouncing puck to the ice where he was able to lift it over Warriors’ goaltender Joe Cannata.

The Black Bears looked to be crawling back in the game when the Hockey East’s scoring leader Spencer Abbott lit the lamp, cutting the deficit to two goals at 4-2 with less than seven minutes remaining in the second period.

Abbott quickly moved into the Warriors’ offensive zone, driving toward the net and beating Cannata by dragging the puck past the sprawling goaltender for a great highlight goal.

Just when it looked like Maine had the potential to close the gap, Merrimack just continued to pull away even further.

Todd scored his second goal of the night, again on the power play, but this time it took only six seconds on a play similar to his first power play goal – Stollery won the faceoff, passed it to Flanigan, who then dished it to Todd in the slot – with one-timer to give Merrimack a 5-2 lead.

In the third period, coach Tim Whitehead decided to put in his second string goaltender in Martin Ouellette, who hasn’t seen significant time since the Massachusetts game back on Nov. 11.

Karl Stollery added his third point of the night after he scored while diving for the puck and beating Ouellette to add Merrimack’s third power-play goal of the night at the 5:39 mark of the final period.

Warriors’ forward Carter Madsen raced with the puck into Maine’s zone on an odd-man rush. The senior from Alberta, Canada fired the puck through Sullivan’s gloveside to take an early 1-0 lead over the visiting Black Bears.

Merrimack continued by scoring their second goal of the evening later in the first period. Jordan Heywood had plenty of time to setup in the right-circle before launching the puck over Sullivan for the 2-0 goal at the 8:00 minute mark as the Black Bears gave up two goals in a two minute span.

Sullivan finished the night with 18 saves, taking the loss, before being relieved by Martin Ouellette, who stopped nine of 10 shots.

Joe Cannata made 24 saves in the victory.

The Black Bears will attempt to avoid being swept by Merrimack in a special start time of 5:00pm because of the NFL playoff game in Foxboro, Mass. between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. The game was originally scheduled to start at 7pm.