Eagles piloting Hockey East to Olympic Fest

Great screaming Eagles! Of all the individual institutions to permeate their influence on the freshly released, 41-member, U.S. Olympic Festival roll call, few are as jutting as Boston College, from which there are five products raring to report to next month’s tryout camp in Blaine, Minn.

In this bragging department, BC trails only the almighty likes of Wisconsin and Minnesota, who are lending a respective 10 and seven of their alumni, active players, or recruits for a shot at the Qwest Tour. Hardly unexpected. Then again, Minnesota-Duluth, the other constituent of the WCHA’s decade-old national hegemony, is flaunting only two of its alumni in Jessica Koizumi and Jenny Potter.

The Eagles have even surpassed local interleague rival Harvard, who has but three connections to speak of, and their chronic Hockey East nemesis from New Hampshire, which is supplying the freshly graduated Kacey Bellamy and Sam Faber.

A quick rundown on BC’s participation:

Rising senior Molly Schaus is up against four other masked ladies, including Northeastern alumna Chanda Gunn, in the hopes that she will be staring down rather than backstopping the WHEA All-Stars come November 22, when her own coach Katie King leads a select smattering of league standouts against the Olympians at UNH’s Whittemore Center.

Last seen in Washington, as one of four Women’s Hockey Easterners partaking in the Frozen Four Skills Challenge, Maggie Taverna has a technical 50-50 shot, as do the rest of the camp’s dozen defenders.

Kelli Stack, the other standout opposite Schaus in the Eagles’ revolutionary class of 2010, has all but created her own questions to answer after the skeptics have run out. But now comes the peerless wager of vying to land a coveted Olympic roster spot on her first bid.

Stack, along with not-so-shabby classmate and linemate Allie Thunstrom, will make that daunting bid against the likes of recent graduate Meghan Fardelmann, the aforementioned Faber, and Providence alumna Karen Thatcher –who since her graduation in 2006 has hardly missed an opportunity to sport the Star-Spangled Sweater.

But, out of the 24 forwards in the pool that will ultimately condense to about 12, only four have prior Olympic experience. The American coaching staff –Northeastern skipper Dave Flint included- is bound to make like bloodhounds for fresh talent, not unlike how BC was yearning for national viability a few short years ago, just before any of the aforementioned players arrived.

One other tidbit: Eagles’ assistant coach Courtney Kennedy will be in on the Festival herself, fulfilling the role of athlete representative. As a result, Hockey East has a grand total of 11 on-or-off-ice personalities with a passport to the National Sports Center, six of whom have fostered their respective skills at Chestnut Hill.