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PORTLAND — It wasn’t perfect, but after four losses in five games, the University of Maine men’s hockey team didn’t need perfect. It needed improvement, and in a 5-4 overtime victory Wednesday night against UMass Lowell at Cross Insurance Arena, it got the kind of grind-it-out, come-from-behind win that can be a springboard.

“I was proud of the way we kept fighting. We made the game hard on ourselves for the better part of two periods, and our special teams won us the game tonight,” Maine coach Ben Barr said. “We’ve had games where we’ve played much better and lost. Right now, it’s just about trying to find the way to play the right way. When you do that, good things happen.”

Owen Fowler’s goal at 3:03 of overtime was the difference in a game in which the Black Bears (9-7-1) showed more resilience than in any recent game. It was fitting that Fowler scored the winner, as he was Maine’s best player throughout the game. Crashing the net and working hard up and down the ice, Fowler was the catalyst the Black Bears have needed.

“He’s been like that all year. He really embodies what we’re trying to do right now,” Barr said of Fowler. “When we’re struggling, he draws a penalty. He finishes a hit. He gets a scoring chance.”

For his part, Fowler said practices after the two losses at home against UNH over the weekend were full of energy.

“Our practices have been really energetic, loud, bring the juice. That’s how you kind of get out of funks,” Fowler said.

Maine’s power play, which at best can be described as a work in progress, was sharp. The Black Bears entered the game with a 16.7% success rate, ranked ninth in the 11-team Hockey East. Maine was 3 for 6 with the man advantage on Wednesday, and tied the game on a power play when Frank Djurasevic, a scratch against UNH on Saturday, scored with a shot from the left circle at 13:40 of the third period.

Maine’s first goal also came on a power play, just four seconds into the advantage. Sully Scholle won the faceoff to Justin Poirier, who fed a pass to Josh Nadeau in the right circle. Nadeau buried his shot to tie the game at 1-1 at 8:35 of the first period.

Poirier scored the first of his two goals a few minutes later, at 13:10, cutting in right to left and slipping the puck over Lowell goalie Austin Elliott.

Poirier’s goal made things look easy, but only for a moment. The Black Bears had to rally from three one-goal deficits. At 3:11 of the second, the River Hawks took a 3-2 lead when David Adaszynski’s shot hit the left post, then pinballed off the back of Maine goalie Mathis Rousseau and into the net. It’s been that kind of season for the Black Bears, and in previous games, that goal might’ve caused them to check out mentally.

This time, they rallied. Poirier’s second goal, a power-play tally, tied the game later in the period. After Lowell took the lead again with a power-play goal 24 seconds into the third, Djurasevic’s power-play goal tied it and sent it to OT. Maine killed a pair of penalties in the final 10 minutes of regulation.

“For the team to scratch and claw our way back, multiple times, honestly, I think that shows a lot of the character we’ve been building,” Fowler said.

Maine has a pair of nonconference games Saturday and Sunday against Lindenwood at Alfond Arena. Team culture has been a concern of Barr’s.

“We’ve been talking a lot about our culture and our standards lately, and it’s been an issue. I think that part of it won us the game tonight,” Barr said.

Wednesday, when his team’s back was against the wall, it fought. The Black Bears pushed back.