ORONO — The University of New Hampshire men’s ice hockey team peppered 45 shots on the University of Maine Sunday afternoon in front of 4,659 fans at Alfond Arena as senior Austin Block’s two goals paced the Wildcats to a 4-0 win over the Black Bears.

New Hampshire improves to 5-1-1 (3-1-1 in Hockey East) with the win. Maine drops to 1-8-0 (0-4-0 in Hockey East).

“It’s intimidating for just about every team to come up here and play,” Block said. “We’ve played up here a lot though and I thought we played hard tonight.”

Sophomore goaltender Casey DeSmith led a stout Wildcats defensive effort, making 42 saves to earn the shutout, improving to 5-1-1 this year. Junior Dan Sullivan stopped a career high 41 shots for the Black Bears as he drops to 0-6-0 on the season.

The Wildcats outshot the Black Bears by a margin of 45-42, though many of Maine’s shots came from low-quality scoring areas on the ice.

“Sullivan played pretty well, but he didn’t win,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. “I thought he played pretty well to be honest with you. The last guy I would look to fault tonight was Sullivan, I thought he played a great game.”

Maine committed 11 penalties for 30 minutes while officials whistled the Wildcats for 24 minutes on eight penalties.

New Hampshire’s power play finished the game 1-for-8 with the extra skater. Maine failed to convert a goal on five power play opportunities.

“Any time we play New Hampshire, it’s a hard hitting and physical game and today was exactly that, but couldn’t find the balance between a physical game and staying out of the penalty box,” Whitehead said. “It cost us right out of the gate.”

The Wildcats netted the first goal at the 3:23 mark of the contest. Block tallied a power play goal with a one-time slap shot from just outside the left faceoff dot. Connor Hardowa and Trevor Van Riemsdyk earned assists on the goal.

“Hardowa gave me a perfect pass and I saw that the goalie was out of the net,” Block said. “I just shot it as hard as I could and it went in.”

New Hampshire struck again at 18:43 of the first. Casey Thrush gained possession as Eric Knodel released from the penalty box, snuck behind Mike Cornell, and took off toward Maine’s zone. Thrush hit Knodel in stride at center ice and Knodel skated into the high slot and released a slap shot by Sullivan.

New Hampshire outshot Maine 17-9 in the first.

Maine failed to convert on a wide open opportunity on consecutive chances at the 4:08 mark of the second period. With DeSmith down on the ice after stopping the initial shot, both teams scrambled for the puck, which squirted around the crease and out to Joey Diamond on the left post. Diamond whiffed on the attempt at the open net and the puck skipped across the crease to Connor Leen on the right post, who also missed when DeSmith lunged to make the save.

UNH burned Maine as a penalty expired again as Block netted his second goal of the game and extended the Wildcats’ lead to 3-0 at 15:21 of the second period.

Kevin Goumas picked the puck along the right half of the blue line as Maine’s Bryce O’Connor left the box for his expiring slashing penalty. Goumas moved the puck left across the blue line to Hardowa who fired a quick shot lot and on net. Sullivan made the initial stop but couldn’t stop Block’s rebound as it squirted underneath him.

“Goumas took a good shot from the point and I tipped it initially,” Block said. “The puck sat there and I got a few good whacks at it and it went in.”

The Wildcats dropped back into a defensive style of play in the third period. They conceded puck possession to Maine, sitting back and denying the Black Bears the middle of the ice and forcing low quality shots that DeSmith easily controlled.

New Hampshire added its final goal at 9:29 of the third period, pushing their lead to 4-0 on a Greg Burke goal. Van Riemsdyk passed the puck to Burke as he streaked across center ice and entered Maine’s zone with a one on one against the Black Bear defense. Burke fired his shot into the defender’s shins at the top of the right circle. As the puck bounced back to Burke’s blade he fired a quick shot through the defenders legs, beating Sullivan five-hole.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” Maine senior captain Mike Cornell said. “It’s not a good feeling and we’re not pleased with the way things turned out, especially against those guys.”