AMHERST, Mass. - No. 2 University of Massachusetts hockey closed out its home regular season slate with a dominating 6-0 victory over Maine on Saturday night at the Mullins Center. The win moves the Minutemen to 26-7-0 overall and 18-5-0 in league action, while the Black Bears fall to 14-15-4 and 10-9-4 in league play.

"This was one of those trap games after an emotional game on Thursday to secure the regular season championship," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "You are always concerned about how your team is going to come out. I think we pushed the right buttons, because the guys came out great. I thought we controlled the whole 60 minutes as well as we have all year. The shot differential was quite extreme, we put up six but their goalie made a lot of good saves. Two shutouts in the last two home games... that's a good sign, we are playing better without the puck. Other than our power play that wasn't very effective, five-on-five we were very good. I know Maine was short-handed, missing some defensemen. It was tough for them tonight, but it was as complete a victory as we've had this year."

Sophomore Oliver Chau opened the scoring at the 7:55 mark of the first period. Picking up the puck from junior Niko Hildenbrand in the neutral zone off an outlet pass from junior Jake McLaughlin, Chau drove to the Maine net and across the crease to lift a backhander past Jeremy Swayman for his seventh of the season.

The Minutemen advantage increased to 2-0 when sophomores Mitchell Chaffee and Mario Ferraro found themselves in behind the Maine defense for a 2-on-0 break, which started off a feed from freshman Bobby Trivigno. Chaffee dished to Ferraro for the tally 17:53 into the first.

With a smothering four-goal second period that saw UMass out-shoot the Black Bears 19-3, the Minutemen put the game out of reach. Off an offensive zone faceoff win, Anthony Del Gaizo shoveled a backhander in from the slot after swatting down a puck from freshman Colin Felix and senior Kurt Keats at the 5:12 mark.

Ty Farmer crashed the net on the power play to make it 4-0, 12:12 into the stanza with Chau and Ferraro collecting the assists.

Chau later added his third point of the night to tie a single-game career best with his second goal of the game coming at the 17:44 mark from Hildenbrand and sophomore George Mika.

Sophomore Jake Gaudet then capped the scoring 18:27 into the second, putting back his own rebound from the slot. Sophomore Cale Makar and Chaffee earned the assists on the play as Makar's marked his 40th point of the season.

UMass finished the night with a 45-16 shot advantage and went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Maine was 0-for-2. Freshman Filip Lindberg made 16 saves and picked up his first collegiate shutout. Swayman and Rob McGovern had 27 and 12 saves, respectively, for the Black Bears.

Thirteen different Minutemen had points in the contest, led by Chau's pair of goals and assist. Ferraro (1g, 1a), Hildenbrand (2a) and Chaffee (2a) all logged multi-point nights, as well.

UMass will be back in action next Friday, March 8, wrapping up the regular season on the road at UConn with a 7:05 matchup against the Huskies.