DURHAM - Going into last night's game, Dick Umile was looking specifically for a few things from his University of New Hampshire hockey team as it endeavored to bust a slump that left it winless three games into the season.

He wanted his club to improve its team defense. He wanted captains Bobby Butler and Peter LeBlanc to continue carrying play whenever on the ice. He wanted success in the specialty situations.

Last night he got all three. And, as a result, his Wildcats got a win.

UNH limited Northeastern to 16 shots on net, Butler had a three-point night and the hosts held a dangerous Husky power play to one score on seven chances, the combination sketching a 4-2 triumph that went just about as the coach might've drawn it up himself.

"I'm pleased," Umile said. "We needed a win. We talked about getting a little bit better each day, each game, and I thought tonight we came out and did a much better job defensively as a team. I thought our guys had good intensity, played tough, played strong on the boards. I was pleased overall."

Defenseman Blake Kessel had three assists and freshman Dalton Speelman added a pair of goals for the 'Cats, who opened Hockey East play with an effort far more thorough than those that saw them start 0-2-1 outside the league.

All the problems that plagued them over the first three games - the men left wide open, the turnovers, the failure to recover in transition - seemed to be solved at least for a night, and when breakdowns did occur Brian Foster was usually there to bail them out.

A week after allowing 11 goals in two games, the senior from Pembroke was steady, solid and square to the puck, the performance of he and his teammates surely a reassuring site for the 6,501 who comprised the Whittemore Center's first sellout of the season.

"Despite the narrow score, we got dominated in most aspects of the game: special teams, five-on-five, pure hustle," Huskies Coach Greg Cronin said. "It was an extremely lethargic performance (for Northeastern), and New Hampshire got better as the game went on. They were skating, and they were playing New Hampshire hockey, and we weren't able to match it."

Cronin liked the way his team played early, particularly over the game's first 10 minutes - but from there the game basically belonged to the Wildcats, who seized the lead 14:41 into play and never relinquished their advantage.

Playing as the left wing on a top line buoyed by two senior captains less than two weeks after he was a healthy scratch for the opener, and just seven days after he debuted as a fourth liner, Speelman put UNH on top with a couple of gritty, second-chance goals.

His first came when he used his backhand to scoop home the rebound of a Kessel blast, while the second came when his skate redirected the rubber past Chris Rawlings (30 saves) after LeBlanc swept it toward the cage - and his contributions weren't done there.

The freshman wasn't credited with a point, but he was part of a power-play unit that worked the puck patiently around the perimeter before Kessel found Butler along the goal line and the senior extended his personal streak to five straight games with a goal. His angle was so bad he wasn't even trying to shoot, but a pass intended for LeBlanc hit the back of Rawlings's skate instead, and caromed into the net for a 3-0 UNH lead less than six minutes into the second period.

"That was going to Pete backdoor," said Butler, whose eight points are as many as he had on Dec. 5 last year. "They don't ask how, they ask how many - so that was good."

With more than 36 minutes still to play, Northeastern still had plenty of time to come back. Particularly because UNH proceeded to give the Huskies five power plays over the next 20 minutes. But the Wildcats simply wouldn't let those man-advantages manifest into a comeback.

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