CHESTNUT HILL - Parker Milner allowed three goals, including two in the second period, and the No. 1 ranked Boston College Eagles were upset by the No. 3 Denver Pioneers, 4-2, giving the Eagles their first loss of the young season in their home opener at Kelley Rink inside Conte Forum on Friday night.
BC (2-1-0) finished with a 23-22 advantage in shots and was 1-for-5 on the power play while Denver (1-0-0) went 0-for-4 with the man advantage. The Eagles had four penalties (eight penalty minutes) while the Pioneers had five (ten minutes).
Jason Zucker scored the game's first goal at 3:27 in the first period for Denver, assisted by Dustin Jackson. BC responded with a goal of its own as Barry Almeida netted his second score of the season, assisted by Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider, at 6:05 in the opening period.
Denver scored twice to open the second period, with Beau Bennett finding the back of the net 55 seconds into the period (assisted by Paul Phillips and Scott Mayfield) and Drew Shore scoring at 8:49 (assists by Zucker and Luke Salazar) to give the Pioneers a 3-1 advantage. Hayes scored his first goal of the season for BC at 17:13, bringing the game within a goal.
However, the Eagles were unable to score in the third period, and the Pioneers added another goal on a cross-ice fling from the other end from David Makowski with an empty net at 19:21, giving Denver its first win of the season.
Boston College is on the road to face New Hampshire at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
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