ORONO — Lynden Breen made his Senior Night extra special.

The senior forward and captain broke a tie with 1:17 left in the third period to give the University of Maine men’s hockey team a 4-3 win over the University of Massachusetts in front of a capacity crowd on Saturday night at Alfond Arena.

In transition, Breen intercepted a UMass pass that bounced off the skate of a Minuteman player. Breen quickly collected himself, and with the flick of a wrist sent a shot past goaltender Michael Hrabel for the go-ahead score. The goal was Breen’s 100th career point.

“I guess God was on my side on that last shift,” Breen said. “I’m just happy I got the puck at the right spot at the right time, and I’m happy I made a play with it.”

“I don’t ever predict this stuff, but I actually thought (Breen) was going to score today,” Maine Coach Ben Barr said. “We were getting outplayed there in the third (period), we were a little outjuiced. He’s always a guy who finds a way to give us some juice, and obviously he did.”

Sully Scholle, Josh Nadeau and Harrison Scott also scored for Maine, Donavan Villeneuve-Houle had two assists, and freshman goalie Albin Boija made 34 saves. Breen was one of five seniors, along with Villeneuve-Houle, Ben Poisson, Victor Ostman and Connor Androlewicz, who were honored after the game.

The Black Bears, ranked ninth in the nation, wrapped the regular season with a 22-10-2 record (14-9-1 Hockey East) to earn the No. 3 seed in the Hockey East playoffs – their best finish since the 2009-10 season. Maine will host a quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“There’s just so much work that goes into (playing hockey at Maine), it just means so much more now,” said Breen, who had a large contingent of family members in attendance for the Senior Night ceremony. “Usually (in previous years), we just worry about the future, working toward next year, next year. But it’s all about now. We have such a special group that can get the job done now and that’s all that we’re focusing on. We still have a lot of work to do, we take it game by game, and now it’s do or die. Obviously, we’re confident with the group we have.”

Jack Musa, Lucas Mercuri and Cole O’Hara tallied goals for UMass (19-12-3, 12-10-2 Hockey East), which was fighting for the No. 4 seed in the conference playoffs.

Maine put pressure on UMass early in the first period. Not only did the Black Bears have a 13-6 shots advantage, but they were 2-for-2 on the power play. Maine scored 4:16 into the first when Scott nailed a one-timer past Hrabel. Villeneuve-Houle and Thomas Freel were credited with assists.

Five minutes later, the Black Bears had another power-play opportunity and took advantage. Scholle fired a shot over Hrabel’s glove and into the top of the net for a 2-0 lead. Villeneuve-Houle and Brandon Holt had assists.

The Minutemen were far from done, answering with three straight goals. Nearly midway through the second period, UMass enjoyed a 3-2 lead.

“(UMass) was the better team tonight,” said Barr, a former UMass assistant. “They’re really well coached. They just kept coming our way. We had a good start, obviously, scoring a couple power-play goals. I think we emotionally kind of let up a little bit and they just tilted the rink a bit on us at times. But (Boija) made some saves.”

The Black Bears evened the score 3-3 later in the second when Josh Nadeau wristed a shot past Hrabel on his stick side. Bradly Nadeau and Nolan Renwick were credited with assists.

“There’s a lot of heart in that room,” Barr said. “I’m so proud of them, with how we’ve done so far and hopefully with what we continue to do. It’s not because we’re better than anybody. It’s because we work extremely hard.”

Hrabel finished with 24 saves.

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