ORONO – Martin Kariya, Paul Kariya, Andre Aubut, Chris Ferraro, Marcus Gustafsson – and now Troy Barnes.

The University of Maine senior defenseman equaled a school mark on Sunday by recording five assists in one game and was on the ice for all six Maine goals as the Black Bears won their first countable game in more than a month with a 6-0 pasting of Quinnipiac University in front of 5,287 fans at Alfond Arena.

“We know we need to have a strong second half if we want to push to make the playoffs,” said Barnes. “We had a lot of meetings and stuff this week, and we went over a lot of things. We hope this is the start of that strong half.”

For the record, Barnes gave most of the credit to his teammates.

“They made some pretty good plays after I touched the puck,” said Barnes. “They made me look better than I am, I think. I had one or two direct passes, but the others were just second assists.”

The beneficiaries of those passes included sophomore Josh Soares, who added two more goals to his season total on Sunday.

“My first one I got a nice pass at the top from Barnes and I shot,” said Soares. “(Jon) Jankus was driving the net, and I think the goalie saw him and got distracted. The second one Barnes took a nice shot and I got the rebound.”

Maine dominated from the beginning Sunday, firing nine shots at Quinnipiac starting netminder Jamie Holden. The Black Bears converted on two of those shots, the first a rebound goal in front by Jon Jankus and the second on a nice finish by Mike Hamilton at the left post. Barnes had assists on both goals, while Lisbon native Greg Moore and fellow former St. Dom’s forward Derek Damon added an assist each.

The Bobcats, meanwhile, managed just two shots at Maine goalie Jimmy Howard. Last year’s national leader in save percentage and goals-against stopped one shot in the first minute of play and another in the final 15 seconds of the period to maintain his first-period shutout.

“Those games can be tough, but the defense did a great job when they did get odd-man rushes to slow them down and clear the rebounds,” said Howard.

Howard worked harder in the second period, but was equal to the task, as he stopped the Bobcats’ seven shots, six of which came before Maine even managed one in the middle frame.

The Black Bears regrouped, though, and started once again to pepper the Quinnipiac net. This time, though, it was Josh Siembida between the pipes after he replaced Holden to start the second.

According to Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold, Holden was sick and could not continue playing.

It didn’t matter to Maine.

Rob Bellamy scored his first collegiate goal at 14:39 to extend Maine’s lead to 3-0. Keith Johnson scored another less than three minutes later on a perfect pass from Damon, and with 11 ticks left on the clock, Soares knocked home his sixth of the season, all but putting the Bobcats away heading into the second break.

Soares’ second of the night was the only score in the third. Howard finished with 19 saves, while Bobcat netminders combined for 25 stops on 31 shots.

Maine now plays all-conference opponents until the end of the regular season. First up is Massachusetts in Amherst this weekend.