ORONO — This is what Owen Fowler was looking for when he entered the transfer portal: a place where he could score a goal and bring a packed arena to its feet, like he did in the first period of Friday night’s game for the University of Maine men’s hockey team against Boston University.

Fowler’s shorthanded goal at 5:12 of the first period ignited the 4,807 fans at Alfond Arena, as well as his teammates, setting the tone for Maine’s 5-2 win. In the third period, Fowler added an empty-net goal to cap the win.

“It adds to it, the fan base and how crazy they get up here. It’s easy to get up for a game here at the Alfond,” Fowler said.

Four of Maine’s five goals came from players who came joined the program through the transfer portal, emphasizing a point they’ve made often in jumping out to a 7-2-1 start through 10 games: The transfer portal has been good to Coach Ben Barr and the Black Bears.

Along with Fowler’s two goals, sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic, who joined the Black Bears after playing at Merrimack last season, scored, as did Harrison Scott, a senior center who came to Maine last season after playing at Bentley. Charlie Russell, who came to Maine this season after playing at Clarkson, was credited with an assist.

Six of the players who took the ice for Maine came to Orono through the transfer portal. Scott leads the team in scoring with six goals and 10 assists. Russell has three goals and nine assists. Taylor Makar, a newcomer to Maine via UMass, has four goals and six assists. Ross Mitton, who joined Maine this season after four seasons at Colgate, has two goals and three assists.

When he scours the transfer portal, Barr is looking first for players who will embrace Maine’s culture of grinding out every shift, not eye-popping stats.

“We’re looking for guys who can come and work hard, because that’s what we have here. We have a lot of hard workers. The culture piece is way more important than if you look at stats,” Barr said. “You can see what guys have done and watch video on them, but you don’t know them as a person. As people, they’ve all fit in.”

That’s what Scott was looking for when he decided to change schools last year.

“It was just coming to an organization that has a good culture. Maine at the time was kind of up and coming. Barr came here two years before I did and was talking about getting Maine back on the map. The biggest thing for me was being around like-minded guys,” Scott said. “I just think it’s hard-nosed players that are just going to work hard and do things the right way. A lot of guys on our team play that 200-foot game. They buy into what we’re doing here.”

Scott’s goal came just before the second period ended and was Maine’s second goal on a 5-on-3 power play in the last 30 seconds of the period. After Thomas Freel scored at 19:30 to push the Black Bears’ lead to 3-0, Scott’s goal made it 4-0 as the period ended. Officials reviewed the goal to make sure it was in the net before the horn sounded. It was, with 0.1 seconds left.

“I knew it was before the buzzer. I didn’t know how close it was. It was definitely a lot closer than I thought. I saw it go in, then I heard the buzzer. I was going to be really disappointed if they called it back,” Scott said.

Fowler’s short-handed goal came at 5:13 of the first period. A turnover in the neutral zone resulted in the puck on Fowler’s stick at the blue line. The junior skated in alone, whipping a shot from the right circle past Terriers goalie Max Lacroix for a 1-0 lead.

Fowler added his empty netter at 18:17 of the third.

“Alfie (assistant coach Alfie Michaud) does a great job with video and showing us their power play. I just tried to read the play and go with it, and luckily it went in,” he said.

Fowler had five goals and seven assists in 33 games at UMass Lowell in 2022-23 but missed all of last season because of a broken kneecap. When he knew he wanted a fresh start at a new school, Maine jumped to the top of Fowler’s list.

“It’s a great team. I was looking for a great culture. As soon as I talked to (Maine), I’d heard a lot about them, and I knew a couple guys coming in. This was definitely what I was looking for,” he said.

Barr said the success of the transfer portal varies from season to season. This season, it looks as if all the newcomers he brought in are the right fit for a team looking to build off the success of last season, in which Maine qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in a dozen years.

“We’re obviously fortunate with the guys we got this year. I think we knew what we were getting. Sometimes you don’t always know that. Not just on the ice, but off the ice,” Barr said.