DURHAM - One night Bob Dylan rocked out the Whittemore Center, and the next the University of New Hampshire opened the doors for its one millionth hockey fan.

But in a week spiced up by special occasions, standard practice still had its place. New Hampshire's hockey team welcomed Northeastern to the Whit, and, as usual, the Wildcats won.

In accordance with history's script, UNH had to earn every inch of breathing room, but in the end it held on for a 4-3 triumph in front of 6,501 witnesses who watched the 12th consecutive Durham date in which the Huskies went back to Boston without a win.

"Coincidence, I guess," UNH senior Sean Collins said.

Perhaps there is an element of luck in such a streak; however, the 'Cats success at home is far from fluky. They're a perfect 6-0 skating on Towse Rink this season and 94 games over .500 (124-30-15) since the arena opened in 1995.

Overall, they've now won five of six to improve to 7-2-1 on the season (4-1-0 in Hockey East), and though they'll be on the road for the next three games, it's getting harder for any of the million loyalists who have stepped through the turnstiles over the past nine seasons not to be excited about the budding winter for the Wildcats.

"I like the way the team played tonight," UNH Coach Dick Umile said. "That's a good win for us. That's a good team."

Collins had a goal and an assist for the winners, while Daniel Winnik, Preston Callander and Mike Radja each added a single tally. Winnik's went as the game-winner, putting UNH ahead 4-2 with 17:51 to go and giving the 'Cats a cushion that became necessary when Tim Judy cut the lead to one with more than 15 minutes remaining.

Northeastern actually had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, when Jon Awe laid out for a loose puck and forced goalie Jeff Pietrasiak to make the last of his 28 saves. But because the junior goaltender smothered the tip as time expired, Northeastern (5-4-1, 2-1-0) will take its first league loss into tonight's rematch at Matthews Arena.

"We battled hard," said Huskies Coach Bruce Crowder. "We're kind of one of those teams that has to play on 18 cylinders."

The Wildcats were in control early, with a 10-1 advantage in shots and three power-play chances in the first 12 minutes, but it wasn't until the Huskies were granted the man advantage that New Hampshire had something to show for its efforts.

With Robbie Barker in the box for interference, Josh Ciocco won the faceoff and dumped it to the dasher near the red line. Radja was the first one to reach the rubber, then skated toward Gibson with only Judy to beat. Radja did that with a cute cut into the slot, then wristed a shot through the goalie for his second career score.

It was the first time in four games that the 'Cats tallied first, perhaps a testament to a reworked pre-game routine that Winnik and Collins agreed might have sparked the reverse of first-period fortunes.

"We've been starting out pretty slow, and we changed our warmup a little bit - more skating to get our legs warmed up a little bit so we don't come out lackadaisical,"Collins said. "We just wanted to come out and get on top for once. When we do that, we feel like we have a pretty good team."

After Radja's goal, though, play evened out and Northeastern capitalized on its next power play to tie the game at 1-all. Judy played catch with Bryan Cirullo at the point before Cirullo sent a slapper that sneaked past Pietrasiak's left pad after nicking Tyson Teplitsky's shin.

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