Dec. 31, 2005

Box Score

DENVER - Senior forward Chris Collins scored his league-leading 14th and 15th goals of the season and junior goalie Joe Pearce tallied 26 saves to lead fourth-ranked Boston College to a 5-1 non-conference win over Princeton in the Denver Cup Championship in Magness Arena.

Pearce, who stopped 27 shots against Princeton and had registered 26 saves in the Eagles' shootout win over Ferris State the night before, was named the MVP of the Denver Cup.

BC (10-4-2, 8-2-1 Hockey East) scored five unanswered goals - including an empty-net tally from freshman defenseman Tim Kunes - before the Tigers scored late in the third period of play.

Collins scored his first goal at 14:12 in the first period, beating Princeton goalie Eric Leroux (33 saves) off Stephen Gionta's face off.

Sophomore Brian O'Hanley and Gionta each added power-play goals to build the BC lead to three at 10:17 in the second period.

Princeton (5-11-0, 2-8-0 ECAC) pulled its goalie twice in the third for the extra-man advantage before Kunes scored his first collegiate goal at 16:30 and Collins added his second goal of the game just over one minute later.

The Tigers got on the board with 1:26 left to play on a power-play goal from Keith Shattenkirk.

Collins, along with senior captain Peter Harrold, joined Pearce on the Denver Cup All-Tournament Team. Collins scored three goals and added one assist in the two-game tourney.

Game Notes: Collins scored multiple goals for fifth time this season. He has recorded 11 points - six goals and five assists - in the last four games ... Pearce recorded 53 saves and went 1-0-1 with a 1.92 goals against average en route to Denver Cup MVP honors. It marked the second time in three seasons that Pearce has earned holiday tournament MVP honors (2003 Great Lakes Invitational) ... The meeting between BC and Princeton marked the 49th in series history, although the two teams were playing each other for the first time since the 1983-84 season, a 6-5 BC win on Dec. 18 ... BC has now won its previous three holiday tournaments - 2005 Denver Cup; 2004 Florida Collegiate Classic; 2003 Great Lakes Invitational.