Women's Hockey | March 07, 2017

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Two current members of the Boston College women's hockey team have been named to the U.S. National Team that will compete in the 2017 IIHF World Championships later this month in Plymouth, Mich. They will join four former Eagles on the 23-player roster.
 
Junior defensemen Kali Flanagan – who earned her first-ever call-up to a senior competition roster – and Megan Keller will look to help the U.S. defend its back-to-back gold medals at the event. Joining Flanagan and Keller are former Eagles Alex Carpenter '16, Emily Pfalzer '15, Haley Skarupa '16 and Kelli Stack '11. Carpenter, Keller, Pfalzer, Skarupa and Stack were members of the gold-medal winning squad at last year's World Championship.
 
Flanagan and Keller represent two of the five current collegians named to the roster by Rob Stauber. Boston College is one of the two most-represented universities with six past or present players on the roster, matching Minnesota.
 
This is Flanagan's first call-up to the full senior national team. She has attended numerous training camps and off-ice camps the last three years, but never had a prior call-up to the national team. She has been a member of the U.S. Under-22 Select Team for its August series against Canada's National Development Team since 2015.

Keller will return to her third IIHF Women's World Championship, which this year is being played just 15 miles from her hometown of Farmington Hills, Mich. In the fall, she was part of the U.S. Team that won the Four Nations Cup, marking her second gold medal at the international event.
 
The U.S.' full schedule for the 2017 IIHF World Championships is available here. The United States opens play in the tournament against Canada on Friday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. Finland and Russia are also in the American's group. The semifinals are set for Thursday, April 6, and the Gold Medal game will be contested on Friday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m.
 
The U.S. squad was selected following the USA Hockey Women's Winter Training Camp that was held December and the Postgraduate Training Camp held last week.
 
The U.S. is the two-time defending world champion and has won six of the last seven world championships (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016).


Boston College (27-5-5) returns to the ice this weekend when the fourth-ranked Eagles host sixth-ranked St. Lawrence in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Kelley Rink. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 11. The winner of the game will advance to the 2017 Frozen Four in St. Charles, Mo., the weekend of March 17-19.