PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Maine eventually may secure home ice for the first round of the Hockey East tournament.

But not if it plays as it did Friday night at Providence College.

The Friars, who’re battling merely to make the tournament, roared to a 3-0 lead in the first period and prevailed, 4-3.

Since Boston College defeated Vermont, the Black Bears (16-9-3, 11-8-2) fell into fifth place — one spot shy of home ice.

“Providence was ready to play and we weren’t,” Coach Tim Whitehead said. “They brought great intensity in the first period while building that 3-0 lead. We’re just not strong enough to spot a team a 3-0 (lead) on the road.

“But they earned it. It was a combination of tremendous work ethic by them and intensity, and a little sloppiness on our part — especially on the breakouts. You leave yourself a slim margin for error when you’re down 3-0 in a game.

“We were fortunate last weekend to come back,” Whitehead added, referring to a 4-3 overtime victory against Alabama-Huntsville.

“We had the home crowd behind us (last week). This was a different story and we weren’t able to ride that wave to perfection.”

Maine’s first-period effort was anything but perfect — especially since it took nearly six minutes to put a shot on goalie Alex Beaudry (27 saves).

Matt Bergland scored the first of his two goals at 9:23 when he slid the puck under Dan Sullivan (28 saves).

Bergland made it 2-0 at 12:26 when he beat Sullivan with a snap shot from the right circle. And Shane Luke scored at 18:22 by flicking in a Stefan Demoupolos pass.

“We came out a little bit flat and they dominated us in the first period,” Spencer Abbott said after scoring one goal and assisting on another to pad his nation-leading point total to 49.

“They beat us to every loose puck. They won battles. They outworked us. They outmuscled us. We came out flat and spotted them three goals and it’s tough to come back from that.”

Another reason why it was difficult for Maine to recover — it was 0 for 3 on the power play. In its three games with PC (10-4-2, 8-10-1), Maine is 0 for 10 on the power play.

“I don’t think we played hard enough to generate enough power plays,” Whitehead said.

“We weren’t driving the net. We weren’t fighting for loose pucks. We were able to earn some penalties in the second and third periods with hard work. But you need to bring that for 60 minutes.”

Maine scored twice in the second, the first at 3:50 when Matt Mangene batted in an Abbott rebound and the other at 18:23 when Abbott finished a two-on-one rush with Brian Flynn.

But Tim Schaller cemented the win when he scored on a wrist shot at 7:02 of the third.

That goal proved to be the difference when Maine’s Joey Diamond scored with 1:10 left in regulation after Whitehead pulled Sullivan.

“It was very frustrating for us tonight, especially in the first period when they were all over us,” Abbott said. “I think we got it back together in the second and third but it was too late.”