The Eagles hold the #2 seed in the tournament, and have posted a 34-2-2 record overall this season. BC returns to the Frozen Four for the fourth time in the past five years, and the fifth time overall. The Eagles are looking for their first national championship in program history, and if they win, they will be the first team from Hockey East to win a national title.

NCAA Quarterfinals: Boston College 5, Clarkson 1

Another strong offensive effort this season led the Eagles past the defending national champions last Saturday. Alex Carpenter scored the first two goals of the game, and Kristyn Capizzano added one of her own as Boston College built up a 3-0 lead over the Golden Knights entering the third period. Clarkson got the next goal, but Haley Skarupa scored with less than seven minutes left in the game to extend it to a three-goal lead again, and Toni Ann Miano added an empty netter with two minutes left. Katie Burt made 20 saves in net to keep the Golden Knights off the board for the first 40 minutes of the game.

The Eagles: An Overview

Strengths/Weaknesses: Boston College has the best scoring offense in the country, at 5.11 goals per game; they’re the only team to be scoring at least five goals on average. The Eagles are the most dangerous team top to bottom; their forwards are extremely creative and have little trouble executing, and they’re led by the nation’s top-two leading scorers. Their power play is much more average than they’d like it to be, at 14th in the country (17.8%), but their penalty kill is exceptional, ticking at 90.4%. Boston College is an elite team, but both losses this year came in title games, once in the Beanpot and once in the Hockey East Tournament. If that starts to weigh on them mentally, it could leave the Eagles at a big disadvantage.

Players to Watch:

• G Katie Burt, .942 save percentage, 1.08 goals-against average (1st nationally), 30-2-2, 10 shutouts (T-3rd nationally)
• F Alex Carpenter, 37 goals, 44 assists, 81 points; leads the nation and team in all three major offensive categories; top-three Patty Kazmaier Award finalist; only player in the country averaging more than 2 points per game (2.25); 67.6% in faceoffs leads team; 9 game-winning goals leads team
• F Haley Skarupa, 31 goals, 40 assists, 71 points; second in the country in assists and points; third in the country in goals; leads team with 211 shots on goal
• D Emily Pfalzer, 8 goals, 34 assists, 42 points; highest-scoring defenseman in the nation; 25 blocked shots
• D Megan Keller, 4 goals, 20 assists, 24 points; leads team with 31 blocked shots

Boston College vs. Harvard

9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. CST, Ridder Arena, Minneapolis, Minn.

Season Series: The Eagles routed the Crimson 10-2 in the teams’ first meeting back in November, but Harvard then handed BC its first loss of the year with a 3-2 win in the Beanpot championship in February.

Friday’s Match-Up: In a perfect world for the Eagles, Boston College will stroll to another 10-2 win, but the Crimson are a much different team than they were when these teams first played. As they showed in the Beanpot title game, they can build their offense while handling BC’s pressure. The Eagles need to stay responsible defensively in light of that and continue to move the puck up and out. Carpenter has been outstanding all season, but she was held off the scoresheet in the Beanpot championship. She has the talent to make a play and change the pace of an entire game, so she’ll need to be involved on Friday.

Other Frozen Four Notes:

• 2015 Frozen Four Central, courtesy of GopherSports.com
• Boston College’s Frozen Four Central
• Alex Carpenter Patty Kazmaier Award Watch, courtesy of BCEagles.com
• Media Day links (3/16/15): Coach Katie King Crowley | Emily Pfalzer, Alex Carpenter, and Emily Field