Boston College 6, Denver 2 -- 2-0-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East
Boston College 3, Denver 0 -- 3-0-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East
BC hockey had a pretty good weekend. Pretty, prettty, prettty, pretttty good.
On Friday night, BC won 6-2 with goals from Joe Whitney, Cam Atkinson, Tommy Cross, Jimmy Hayes, Kevin Hayes and Brian Gibbons. Hobey hopeful Atkinson set the tone of the game in the first period, floating a perfect pass to Joe Whitney for the Eagles first goal of the night. BC then added four goals in the second period before John Muse gave up his first goal of the season to make the game 5-1. It was the first goal that Muse has given up since the third period of the Frozen Four semifinal game against Miami, a goalless streak that spanned 7 and 1/2 periods (150:16). Muse made 27 saves on the night.
On Saturday, Parker Milner got the start in net and notched his first career shutout as the Eagles won 3-0. Milner turned aside 20 shots. Jimmy Hayes, Tommy Cross and Cam Atkinson (empty-net) scored for the Eagles.
The weekend sweep was nice, but this Denver Pioneers team had little resemblance to the team that beat BC 4-3 in the second game of last year's Denver Cup. The Pioneers were probably a bit overrated at #6 in the country, as DU had to replace their top three points leaders from last season -- Rhett Rakhshani (21-29-50), Joe Colborne (22-19-41), and Tyler Ruegsegger (16-24-41) -- as well as senior goaltender Marc Cheverie.
For his 2 goal performance over the weekend, Jimmy Hayes earned Hockey East Player of the Week honors.
Other takes on the weekend: Boston Globe, Soaring To Glory, Western College Hockey Blog.
The Eagles have the week off before continuing their season-opening road trip with a visit to Notre Dame and the 3-1-0 Irish on Saturday night.
Still the one
At 3-0-0, BC remains atop this week's USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll. Other Eagles' opponents in the polls this week:
#7 New Hampshire (1-1-1)
#8 Boston University (2-0-1)
#12 Maine (1-1-2)
#17 Notre Dame (3-1-0)
BC, Nebraska-Omaha, Colgate and Robert Morris are the only Division I teams that have started the season and remain unbeaten and untied.
Prospectin'
BC's Paul Carey recently sat down with the Denver Post to talk about life as a Colorado Avalanche prospect.