With Muse coming off hip surgery and highly touted freshman Parker Milner in the fold, coach Jerry York said he’d ease Muse’s workload. That began last night with Milner’s collegiate debut. He backstopped a 4-3 victory, and he had to earn it. After a wide-open first period in which each team scored three times, Milner faced only six shots in the first 20 minutes but settled down to shut down the Warriors the rest of the way with a total of 15 saves.

“It’s going to be really important for us to develop some depth in goaltending. He had a rough first period but he stayed in there and kept his composure and made some good saves, especially down the stretch,’’ said York. “So I think he got his baptism of fire in Hockey East tonight and he’ll be a lot better goaltender because of it.’’

How much Milner, 19, plays will not only depend on how well he does, but also on how much rest Muse requires.

“I think we have to monitor [Muse] all year,’’ said York. “I keep on looking at [Red Sox third baseman] Mike Lowell. We’re hoping we can monitor [Muse’s] workload. He’s progressing very well but we just have to be a little conscious of it.’’

The first period was a series of flurries at both ends of the rink.

Jimmy Hayes broke through for BC (2-1-0, 1-1-0) with his first tally of the season at 2:57, scoring from the inside edge of the left circle. Only 39 seconds later, Paul Carey made it 2-0 when he potted his first of the year, beating sophomore Joe Cannata (32 saves) from deep in the left circle.

With Merrimack (4-3-0, 1-1-0) facing a delayed penalty call, Matt Price hit the post with the initial shot and Carey was there to bury the rebound.

Just 22 seconds later, the Warriors cut the deficit in half. At 3:58, Jeff Velleca scored from the slot, beating Milner. At 17:08, freshman defenseman Kyle Bigos pulled Merrimack even with a low blast from just inside the blue line on the power play for his first collegiate goal.

The Warriors took the lead at 18:10 when freshman Brandon Brodhag tallied his first collegiate goal, scoring from the slot. But it didn’t last long. With 53.5 ticks left on the clock, defenseman Carl Sneep made a smart deke outside the left post and beat Cannata. Despite the tie score, BC had a wide shot margin, 16-6, in the first 20 minutes.

“It was kind of a whirlwind,’’ said Price. “There are not really a lot of words to describe it. It was just kind of fast paced and not exactly what we want to do. You never want to trade goals back and forth. Obviously, we want to play uptempo but there wasn’t much system. It was just kind of run-and-gun hockey and [we] want to try to control the play.’’

The Eagles went back on top for good during a four-on-four situation at 9:18 of the second. Ben Smith, positioned just outside the right post, took a pass from Brian Gibbons and popped a shot past Cannata for his second of the season.

For Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy, there were positives but there are also areas that need to be worked on.

“I thought we were resilient,’’ said Dennehy. “That said, when you’re up, 3-2, the last thing you want to do is give up a goal in the last minute of a period. [BC] is a very good team. I thought they gave us a lot of problems. I didn’t think we played with the type of confidence we needed to play with tonight.’’

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.