All four of Maine’s Division III men’s hockey teams will play for a championship in the first Lobster Pot Tournament after their holiday break.

“Anytime there’s a trophy at play, it makes things a lot more interesting,” Bowdoin coach Ben Guite said.

The tournament will take place Jan. 2-3 at Falmouth Ice Center in Falmouth. The first day, Colby and the University of New England will match up in the first game at 3:30 p.m., followed by a game between the University of Southern Maine and Bowdoin at 7 p.m. The winners will face off in the title game at 5:30 p.m. the following day.

UNE (8-2) is ranked seventh in the latest USCHO.com top-15 poll, while Bowdoin (6-2-1) is 13th, and Colby (5-2-1) received 12 votes. Southern Maine, meanwhile, is 5-4-1.

“I think all four teams are going to have a crack at it,” Guite said. “There’s no doubt in my mind.
We’ve played Colby already this year (a 3-2 Bowdoin win on Nov. 22). They’re obviously a handful and a very hard team to play. UNE has been a perennial power here for a while now, since (coach) Kevin (Swallow) has been there. (USM coach) Matt (Pinchevsky) has been doing a tremendous job. His team just plays with a lot of energy. They’re very hard to beat.”

There also will be a youth clinic at the neighboring Casco Bay Arena from 2-3 p.m. on Jan. 2. Ice skating will be available on the pond near Family Ice Center.

Guite said the tournament is an opportunity to showcase Division III hockey in the state. He also noted a trickle down of talent in Division III with former Canadian Hockey players now allowed to play in Division I.

The Mules, for example, have three former Division-I players, including leading scorer Colby Browne (Northern Michigan), defenseman Riley Rosenthal (Stonehill), and Auburn’s Reese Farrell (Army). Nor’easters goalie Harrison Chesney played at Northeastern.

Tickets are $8 per game and can be purchased starting Monday by visiting UNE’s website.

Contributing at the D-I level

Former Maine high school girls basketball standouts are off to strong starts to the season for their NCAA Division I programs.

Oxford Hills graduate Ella Pelletier Pelletier is averaging 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game over 10 games in her first season at Stonehill College.

In her second season at Boston University after transferring from Providence College, Hampden Academy alum Bella McLaughlin is averaging 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. She also has a team-high 34 assists in 10 games.

Another Mainer contributing at the D-I level is Pelletier’s former Oxford Hills teammate Sierra Carson, who is averaging 3.0 points per game for Dartmouth.

NFHCA All-Americans

Two Mainers were named Division II All-American by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association recently.

Gracie Moore, a senior forward at Bentley who is from Pittsfield, was named first-team All-American. She finished the season with 15 goals and 12 assists in 22 games.

Meanwhile, Biddeford’s Jillian McSoreley, a senior defender at Assumption College, is a second-team All-American. McSoreley earned the honor by helping the Greyhounds hold opponents to 0.72 goals per game.

Bates College defender Haley Dwight was named to the Division III first team, while forward Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg earned third-team honors, along with Bowdoin’s Emily Ferguson.

A man armed with a knife was shot and killed by police in Springfield, Massachusetts, Saturday evening.

Springfield police and the Hampden District Attorney’s Office are investigating the police shooting that occurred after officers responded to a 911 call around 4:40 p.m. for a man exhibiting psychiatric behavior while carrying a knife in the 1100 block of Worcester Street in Indian Orchard.

Due to circumstances that remain under investigation, police say one officer fired their service pistol, striking the armed man. Medical aid was rendered on scene immediately, according to the police department, but the man died from his injuries on scene.

The Hampden District Attorney’s Office will determine the propriety of the shooting and whether or not the use of force was justified.

Police haven’t identified the officer who fired their weapon, or released the name of the man who died.

The investigation remains ongoing at this time, and police say additional information will be released when the it has concluded.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has closed a complaint after finding that Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill did not engage in illegal electioneering.

At issue were a series of emails Liot Hill, a Lebanon Democrat, had sent from her official government account to help the partisan Elias Law Group connect with voters impacted by a new state voting law.

Republican lawmakers said that was an inappropriate use of official resources, threatening to impeach Liot Hill over her correspondence. James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, reported his concerns to the Attorney General’s Office in August.

In August, the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats and progressive causes, represented three visually-impaired plaintiffs who sued New Hampshire officials over the constitutionality of a new law that would tighten photo ID requirements for voters seeking an absentee ballot. That case was recently dismissed by a New Hampshire Superior Court judge.

This week, the Attorney General’s Election Law Unit released its determination that Liot Hill’s emails did not constitute illegal electioneering, in a Dec. 18 letter to MacEachern.

The Election Law Unit said it reviewed five emails from Liot Hill’s official government account that MacEachern had provided.

It found the content of the emails did not meet the state’s definition of electioneering, “because it does not relate in any way to ‘the vote of a voter on any question or office,’ i.e., something to be voted on at an election,” Brendan A. O’Donnell, senior assistant attorney general in the Election Law Unit, said in the letter.

“Moreover, it is not uncommon for elected officials to use their official capacity to take a position on the constitutionality of an enacted law that is being challenged in court,” O’Donnell said.

However, the letter noted that Liot Hill’s emails did raise the risk that its recipients — including two executive branch officials — could interpret her requests for help as commands.

“All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety,” said O’Donnell.

But, he continued, his office did not find in this case that there had been a misuse of position or that the emails otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code.

MacEachern said he still has concerns about Liot Hill, when reached for comment on the Election Law Unit’s findings.

“This report, among others, continues to raise serious questions about Councilor Liot-Hill’s judgement and brazen willingness to push ethical boundaries with her conduct,” he said in an email.

But Liot Hill said the findings “underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks” against her, including the impeachment proceedings Republicans have failed against her.

“I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat,” she said in an email.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.