University of Maine junior center Lynden Breen and junior goalie Victor Ostman were named to the All-Hockey East second team on Friday.
Breen became the first Black Bear to score 20 goals since Joey Diamond scored 25 in the 2011-12 season, and Ostman was named a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, which goes to the nation’s top Division I goaltender.
The All-Hockey East teams were chosen by the league’s 11 coaches.
Breen and Ostman were the catalysts behind UMaine’s dramatic turnaround from a team that went 7-22-4 a year ago to 15-16-5 this season.
Breen was the Hockey East goal-scoring leader in all games with 21 and he was tied for the lead in goals in conference play with 14.
His 21 goals puts him in a sixth-place tie among the country’s 62 Division I schools.
He also had 15 assists for 36 points in 36 overall games, which tied him for sixth with Northeastern’s Justin Hryckowian, and he had 26 points in 24 league games to place him sixth by himself.
He led the nation in shorthanded goals with four.
Breen tied for the team lead in game-winning goals with three and he was UMaine’s best plus-minus player at plus-10.
A player earns a plus-one if he is on the ice when his team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and they are assessed a minus-one if the other team scores.
He was tops on the team in shots on goal with 118 and he was second on the team with four power play goals.
The 5-foot-9, 173-pound native of Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick, notched five goals and five assists in his last five games and had 11 multiple-point games.
Since the 2011-12 season, Breen is just the fourth Black Bear forward to earn a spot on the All-Hockey East team, following Devin Shore (1st team 2014, 2nd team 2015), Chase Pearson (2nd team, 2918-19 season) and Mitch Fossier (2nd team, 2019-20).
“He’s just a really good hockey player. What he did this year, scoring 20-plus goals, is really hard to do,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr.
“He did everything for us this year: power play, penalty kill, center the top line. He is also a great teammate. He is what Maine hockey is. He really wants to see us do well.”
“He is an unbelievable hockey player,” said Vermont head coach Todd Woodcroft.
Ostman, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Danderyd, Sweden, posted an overall goals-against average of 2.21, which tied him for second in Hockey East and 11th in the country. His five shutouts are second in Hockey East and tied for fifth in the country.
He held opponents to one goal or fewer 12 times.
Ostman, who had a 14-12-4 record, was also credited with two assists.
“He was a huge piece of any improvement we made, for sure,” Barr said. “He played a lot of minutes (1,874:39). He didn’t get a break the whole second half. We didn’t have a weekend off in the second half like everyone else did.”
Ostman shaved more than a goal per game off his goals-against average from a year ago when it was 3.31.
Joining Ostman and Breen on the second team were UMass defensemen Scott Morrow and Ryan Ufko, Northeastern forward Hryckowian, and UConn forward Ryan Tverberg.
The first team includes Boston University defensemen Domenick Fensore and Lane Hutson and forward Matt Brown, Northeastern goalie Devon Levi and forward Aidan McDonough, and Merrimack forward Alex Jefferies.
Levi was named the league’s Goaltender of the Year for the second straight year.
The third team is made up of UMass Lowell goalie Gustavs Davis Grigals and defenseman Jon McDonald, Providence defenseman Max Crozier and forward Parker Ford, Merrimack goalie Hugo Ollas, BU forward Wilmer Skoog and Boston College forward Cutter Gauthier.
The All-Rookie team included BU’s Hutson and Northeastern’s Hunter McDonald on defense, and forwards Gauthier from BC, UMass’ Kenny Connors, BU’s Ryan Greene, Northeastern’s Cam Lund and UConn’s Matthew Wood.
Northeastern’s McDonald was the league’s best defensive defenseman and teammate Hrjyckowian was the best defensive forward. UConn’s Hudson Schandor won the sportsmanship award, Hutson was the Three Stars Award winner and UNH won the team sportsmanship award.
The finalists for the Player, Rookie and Coach of the Year will be named on Monday.
