No. 7 Eagles, No. 3 Buckeyes Set to Clash in NCAA Quarterfinal

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Making the 12th NCAA tournament appearance in program history, the sixth-seeded Boston College women's hockey team will take on third-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinal round at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16 at Erie Insurance Arena. A free video stream will be available via NCAA.com.

Both Ohio State and Boston College earned at-large bids to the tournament, with OSU coming in as the third seed and BC as the sixth, to set up a rematch of the 2018 NCAA tournament quarterfinal round. The Buckeyes are ranked third in the country while the Eagles come in at seventh.

GAME 20 | No. 7 Boston College vs No. 3 Ohio State
2021 NCAA Women's Hockey Tournament Quarterfinal
Tuesday, March 16, 2021 | 7:00 P.M. | NCAA.com
Erie Insurance Arena | Erie, Pa.

WHAT'S ON TAP
• No. 3 Ohio State and No. 7 Boston College will meet in the NCAA tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday night at the Erie Insurance Arena.
• This is the second time in three years that these two teams are squaring off in the quarterfinal ... in 2018, a then No. 6 Ohio State squad upset a No. 4 Boston College squad, 2-0, at Kelley Rink.
• This is the 12th overall NCAA bid for the Eagles and the 11th under head coach Katie Crowley while it is the third for the Buckeyes, all under Nadine Muzerral.
• Both teams earned at-large bids to the tournament, with OSU coming in as the third seed and BC as the sixth.

ABOUT BOSTON COLLEGE
• Kelly Browne (7-13-20) and Savannah Norcross (11-9-20) are tied for the team lead in points with 20 each, a number which also places them tied for 15th in the country.
• Norcross has a team-high 11 goals, which is tied for seventh in the country (and second among Hockey East players) ... Browne has 234 face-off wins to rank ninth in the country and her .595 winning percentage is third overall among players that have taken at least 375 draws.
• Hadley Hartmetz is tied for sixth nationally among defenders in scoring with 14 points on one goal and 13 helpers, with her assists sitting third in the nation among defenders ... additionally she has been on the ice for 30 even-strength goals, which ranks eighth nationally among all players and fourth for defenders.
• Abigail Levy is 6-3-0 with a 1.64 goals against average, .945 save percentage and two shutouts ... Levy's save percentage is fourth in the country while her goals against average ranks 10th.
• The Eagles finished an 18-game regular season slate at 14-4-0 and earned the second seed in the Hockey East Tournament but fell to UConn in the quarterfinal round ... BC had a nine game-winning streak during the regular season.

ABOUT OHIO STATE
• Ohio State earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after going 12-6-0 ... the Buckeyes fell to Wisconsin, 3-2, in the WCHA tournament title game on March 7.
• The Buckeyes are led offensively by Tatum Skaggs, who has 17 points on eight goals and nine assists ... Skaggs has also potted three game-winning goals and two power-play goals on the year.
• Jennifer Gardiner (8-7-15) and Emma Maltais (5-10-15) give OSU another pair of 15-point players ... Maltais has a team-leading 108 shots on goal.
• OSU has the nation's second-best penalty kill at 95.6 percent and allows the fifth fewest shots on goal against at 24.33
• Andrea Braendli has gone 10-6-0 with a 1.99 goals against average, .918 save percentage and two shutouts.
• Nadine Muzerall is in her fifth season as head coach of the Buckeyes ... twice she's been named the WCHA Coach of the Year ... last year, she led OSU to the program's first-ever conference tournament title.

SERIES HISTORY
• Ohio State leads the all-time series at 1-0-0 ... the lone meeting between the Buckeyes and Eagles came in the 2018 NCAA tournament quarterfinal round at Kelley Rink, with Ohio State earning a 2-0 win.
• Junior goaltender Abigail Levy has played nine games against Ohio State, with all nine coming in her first two collegiate seasons at Minnesota State ... Levy is 1-6-1 all-time against the Buckeyes with a 2.44 goals against average and .942 save percentage ... Levy recorded a 41-save shutout against Ohio State on Dec. 1, 2018.
• Maegan Beres registered one shot on goal in the 2018 NCAA tournament loss.
• The Eagles are 10-22-2 all-time against teams from the WCHA.

A WIN WOULD . . .
• Give BC an overall record of 15-5-0 overall.
• Move BC's all-time program record to 480-355-80.
• Give head coach Katie Crowley an overall record of 336-117-51.
• Bump BC to an all-time record of 9-11 in the NCAA tournament with a mark of 8-4 in the quarterfinal.
• Move BC to 10-14-2 all-time against teams ranked No. 3 in the country.
• Advance the Eagles to the program's eighth Frozen Four.

TOURNEY TIME!
• This is the 12th NCAA Tournament appearance for Boston College ... BC's 12 bids are tied for the third-most in NCAA Tournament history ... Minnesota has earned 17 appearances followed by Wisconsin with 14, and then Minnesota Duluth and BC with 12 each.
• The Eagles have an overall mark of 8-11 in the tournament ... BC is 7-4 in the quarterfinal round, 1-6 in the semifinals and 0-1 in the championship game.
• BC is 1-6 in neutral site NCAA tournament games (with all coming in the semifinal or final) ... in road tournament games, the Eagles have gone 1-4 including a 1-3 mark in road quarterfinal tilts.

CROWLEY'S TOURNEY SUCCESS
• This marks the 11th time that Boston College head coach Katie Crowley has led the Eagles to the NCAA tournament, which ranks tied for fourth in tournament history
• Wisconsin's Mark Johnson has led his teams to 15 tournaments, Mercyhurst's Michael Sisti and Minnesota's Brad Frost have guided their teams to 13 tournaments while Harvard's Katey Stone has done it 11 times.
• Crowley led BC to nine consecutive NCAA tournament bids (2011 to 2019), marking the third-longest streak in tournament history ... Frost led Minnesota to 13 straight (2008 to 2020) and Sisti led Mercyhurst to 11 straight (2005 to 2016).
• Including this season, Crowley has led 11 of her 14 squads to the NCAA tournament.

TOP EAGLES IN THE TOURNEY
• Haley Skarupa '16 is BC's all-time leading scorer in the NCAA tournament with a 5-9-14 line in eight games.
• Alex Carpenter '16 scored a program-high seven goals in her four NCAA tournaments ... the 2015 Patty Kaz winner also added six assists for 13 points.
• Eight Eagles on the 2020-21 roster have appeared in an NCAA tournament game ... no current Eagles have registered a point in the tournament.

LAST TIME OUT
• Boston College last played on Feb. 28, hosting UConn in the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinal round at Kelley Rink ... the Huskies skated to a 5-1 win.
• After a scoreless opening frame, UConn scored three goals in the second and struck again midway through the third for a 5-0 lead.
• Cayla Barnes potted her fourth goal of the season with six minutes to play but a final UConn score with 110 seconds on the clock iced the game.
• Abigail Levy finished with 21 saves for the Eagles.

IT'S WORTH NOTING . . .
• The Boston College junior class has combined for 31 goals and 37 assists for 86 points, third most among all junior classes ... BC's Class of 2022 has scored 11 game-winning goals, the most of any team's class year in the country.
• The Eagles penalty kill unit ranks 10th in the country with an 88.4 percent kill rate.
• Maegan Beres is tied for fifth in the nation for blocks by a forward with 27.
• Hannah Bilka, Kelly Browne and Savannah Norcross have all tallied points in 13 of BC's 19 games.
• Abigail Levy (6-3-0), Maddy McArthur (5-1-0) and Kelly Pickreign (3-1-0) make BC one of just two teams in the country to have three goaltenders with multiple wins and the only team in the country to have at least two goaltenders with five wins.
• BC has four players with multiple game-winning goals in Jillian Fey (4), Savannah Norcross (3), Cayla Barnes (2), and Gaby Roy (2).
• BC is 18-4-0 over the last two seasons when Hadley Hartmetz records at least one point and 18-3-1 when Alexie Guay does.
• Hannah Bilka has registered at least one shot on goal in all 52 contests that she has played for BC, putting multiple shots on goal in 46 of them ... BC is 15-0-1 all-time when she scores a goal.

No. 7 Eagles, No. 3 Buckeyes Set to Clash in NCAA Quarterfinal

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Players Mentioned

Cayla Barnes

Maegan Beres

Hannah Bilka

Kelly Browne

Jillian Fey

Alexie Guay

Hadley Hartmetz

Abigail Levy

Maddy McArthur

Savannah Norcross

Kelly Pickreign

Gaby Roy