LOWELL — The Hockey East regular season came to a close Saturday night, and both UMass-Lowell and Boston College left Tsongas Arena as proud owners of first-round byes for league playoffs that will begin Friday night.

The 11th-ranked River Hawks, fresh from their convincing 3-1 win here over the Eagles before a sellout crowd of 6,942, wore proud smiles as they tapdanced around town square of the old mill town.

The No. 2-ranked Eagles, with their first loss since Dec. 29, left chagrined over their loss to their plucky league brethren, particularly because it cost them sole ownership of Hockey East’s regular-season title. The 2015-16 record book will show that Boston College and Providence (an easy winner Saturday over UMass) each finished with 35 points and a share of the title.

“We’re disappointed in the loss,’’ said coach Jerry York, his Eagles 15-2-5 in Hockey East and 24-5-5 overall. “We all thought we could have played better, executed better. But again, Lowell was part of the reason we did not do that. We wanted to win the game.’’

Meanwhile, the River Hawks were elated to be handed their two-week respite ahead of the playoffs. The victory lifted their league mark to 12-6-4 and slipped them ahead of Boston University (also 12-6-4) for the No. 4 spot in league standings by virtue of a tiebreaker. BU, seeded first among the also-rans (fifth overall), will open the best-of-three first round on Friday vs. the bedraggled UMass Minutemen at Agganis Arena.

“We’ll be able to get a little extra rest,’’ noted Lowell captain A.J. White, “and work on things that need improvement in our game.’’

There was little that appeared in need of fine-tuning in the River Hawks’ game here, only one day after their 3-1 loss at the Heights. They were strong on the forecheck, quicker to recover pucks at both ends of the ice, and never worked from a deficit (they never had the lead the night before at Kelley Rink).

“Our urgency was better throughout the game,’’ noted Lowell coach Norm Bazin, contrasting the effort against Friday’s loss. “Overall, we have to be happy with it.’’

White opened the scoring midway through the first and BC’s lone answer for the night came at 4:34 of the second when Alex Tuch drilled home a one-timer off a sweet dish from a pirouetting Casey Fitzgerald.

Poised to put the River Hawks away at the start of the third period, after being awarded a power play with two seconds left in the second, the Eagles were stunned as sophomore defenseman Tyler Mueller fired home a shorthander only 21 seconds into the period. Charging in on a 2-on-2, Mueller pulled up on the right wing half-wall and his hard wrister beat goalie Thatcher Demko (27 saves) through a screen.

“I thought Eddie had good net drive,’’ said Mueller, referring to his partner on the attack, John Edwardh, who helped set the screen with a charge into the slot. “He was able to push the defenseman back.’’

Edwardh, a sophomore right winger from Calgary, added the night’s final goal with 6:47 gone in the third, cashing on a diving feed from C.J. Smith. Edwardh finished with a game-high six shots on Demko and Lowell finished with a lopsided, and truly indicative, 30-20 shot edge for the night. In the two games, Lowell totaled a 59-40 shot edge over the Eagles.

BC, among the nation’s elite programs, now has finished atop Hockey East in four of the last six seasons. Although tied with Providence for this year’s league title, the Eagles will maintain home-ice advantage for as long as they are in the playoffs, their regular-season record of 15-2-5 considered better than the Friars 16-3-3 because the Eagles were 1-0-1 vs. the Friars in head-to-head play.

“We have to use it smartly, creatively, and get some rest periods,’’ said York, referring to the time his charges earned with the bye. “We’ll sit down with our captains and come up with a plan of attack. I think it’s 11 days of practice prior to our first game.’’

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.