ORONO — A week later than it would have liked, the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team got the start it was looking for.

The Black Bears scored three times in the second period and got two goals from Eduards Tralmaks and Tim Doherty en route to a 7-1 win over the University of Alaska Anchorage in the home opener Friday night at Alfond Arena.

The Maine power play connected twice, junior Emil Westerlund dished out three assists and six different Black Bears enjoyed multi-point nights. The two teams meet again Saturday night.

The effort and execution were both much better than they were in a 7-0 season-opening loss last weekend against nationally-ranked Providence College.

“I think we played with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” said transfer defenseman J.D. Greenway, who scored the first goal just 74 seconds after the puck dropped. “We wanted to prove to ourselves that we’re a competing team and we’ve got what it takes to play in Hockey East.

“We’re ready to move forward. We don’t really dwell on the past.”

Maine coach Red Gendron summed up his team’s improvements this week in a single word.

“Everything,” he said.

Maine (1-1-0) got off to a quick start, perhaps taking advantage of an Alaska Anchorage team making college hockey’s longest road trip — nearly 4,500 miles — ahead of their first game of the season.

Greenway and Doherty each found the back of the net before the game was five minutes old.

“We simplified our game. Last weekend we tried to be a little pretty, and obviously it didn’t turn out so well,” Doherty said. “We went into this week with a different mindset of just getting pucks and bodies to the net. We had to score a goal at some point, and a little outburst (early) like that was huge for our team’s confidence.”

Alaska Achorage (0-1-0) got on the board midway through the first with Alex Frye’s first career goal.

After coming up empty on their first three power-play opportunities, Maine started to let some of its early momentum slip over to the other side of the rink. An early second-period power play for the Seawolves complicated matters, but Maine junior goalie Jeremy Swayman (20 saves) turned in his best work with consecutive saves on Nolan Nicholas and Frye.

That set the stage for Maine’s three-goal second period, with Tralmaks and Simon Butala potting goals in the middle stages of the stanza to make it a 4-1 Black Bear lead.

Tralmaks capped the period off with an offensive zone faceoff win before driving to the net to redirect home Mitchell Fossier’s snap shot from the half-wall at 18:33.

Fossier, who led Hockey East in assists last season, handed out two more helpers Friday.

“The kinds of goals we scored, especially through the first two periods, were the kind of stuff we need,” Gendron said. “We played to our identity. That’s something I don’t think we did last week except in a few spurts. Now we have to build on it. That’s the way we have to play all the time, no matter who the opponent is or where we play.”

Puck movement and puck management were good for the Black Bears, particularly over the final two periods. They were able to take advantage of the Seawolves in transition, creating odd-man rushes of their own while allowing very few to the visitors.

Dawe and Doherty scored man-advantage goals in the third 2:01 apart as Maine went 2 for 7 with the power play on the night. The Black Bear penalty kill was a perfect 2 for 2.

“Everybody was looking forward to this,” Doherty said. “Especially with what happened last weekend, we wanted to respond in the right way and not just curl up and feel sorry for ourselves. We had to respond the right way.”

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