ORONO — This season, the Border Battle went to the University of New Hampshire.

UNH completed a weekend sweep against UMaine with a 3-2 win Saturday night at Alfond Arena.

Maine, now 8-7-1 overall and 5-5 in Hockey East, will play UMass Lowell on Wednesday at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. UNH improved to 9-7 overall, 5-4 in league play.

It’s the first time the Black Bears have been swept in a two-game series at home in more than two years, since a pair of losses to UMass in March 2023.

The Wildcats took a 2-1 lead at 9:11 of the second period on a goal by J.P. Turner. UNH made it 3-1 a few minutes later, on a Josh Player goal at 11:57. Player’s shot rolled off goalie Albin Boija’s stick and into the net.

Maine coach Ben Barr has said his team has struggled with culture issues all season, and that was again a factor.

“If you had a microphone on the bench, you would’ve known what exactly happened,” Barr said. “We start yelling at each other. I think we culturally bottomed out in the second period. At least that’s what I hope. … In the third period, we didn’t have that. We didn’t tie the game. We lost the game. It is was it is, but I’m hoping we culturally bottomed out in that second period and we can build on that (third period) going forward.”

After falling 1-0 on Friday night, Maine got on the board first, just 2:47 into the game. Brandon Holt fed a pass from the left corner, just below the circle, to Josh Nadeau parked at the right post in front of Wildcat goalie Kyle Chauvette. Nadeau tapped it in for his ninth goal of the season.

UNH answered at 6:45 when Nick Ring fired a wrist shot from the top of the left circle over the glove of Boija. The Maine starter was pulled after two periods and was replaced by Mathis Rousseau, who started Friday’s game. Barr said he made the switch because he felt Boija wasn’t focused.

“Honestly, it was a culture decision. Albin is a fantastic goaltender. He’s an All-American. He’s a great kid. He’s a competitor. You know something’s not right when five minutes after he thinks he got tripped, he’s yelling at the referee after letting in two goals he probably shouldn’t have gone in. … He’s been working on it. We’ve been working on it with him,” Barr said.

Holt scored at 4:31 of the third, pulling Maine within a goal. While the Black Bears sustained pressure throughout the third, they couldn’t produce a tying goal. Chauvette finished with 28 saves.

“Obviously, it’s a tough weekend. There’s no other way to put it. I don’t think we played that horrible, but we didn’t do enough to win,” said Holt, a captain. “Sometimes we struggle when things don’t go our way to stick to what gives us success. I think you saw it today in the second period. We got away from our game.”