The University of Maine men’s hockey team earned some valuable momentum to take into the Hockey East playoffs by virtue of Friday’s dramatic come-from-behind shootout victory over the sixth-ranked University of Massachusetts at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. The game is recorded as a tie for NCAA purposes, but the Black Bears (3-10-2) earned two league points in the league standings while the Minutemen (13-5-4) gained one. Neither team scored in overtime but UMaine won the shootout 2-1 on goals by freshmen Lynden Breen and Donovan Houle and three saves by freshman goalie Victor Ostma. Zac Jones scored in the shootout for UMass, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. UMaine had lost its last three games at the Mullins Center by an aggregate score of 15-2. Due to a COVID-19 outbreak at Merrimack, the Warriors won’t participate in the playoffs, so UMaine will probably be the No.