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The future appears bright for the defending National Champion Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey team. So bright, in fact, that four current players were named to the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp 28-man roster, announced on Monday. Team USA will compete in a series of exhibition games against Sweden and Finland this week in Lake Placid, N.Y.
BC defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Patrick Wey and Philip Samuelsson will be joined by forward Chris Kreider on this year's squad. BC's four selections were the most of any college program. Steven Whitney and Kevin Ryan and 12 other Evaluation Camp hopefuls who competed in a three-game intrasquad series did not make the final 28-man roster.
The team will face Finland and Sweden twice from today through August 7. Team USA opens today with a game against Sweden at 4 PM ET. Click here for a complete schedule. You can catch all of the games streaming online at USAHockey.FASTHockey.com.
These four Eagles are auditioning to make the U.S. National Junior team, which will participate in the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. This year's World Junior tournament will take place between December 26 and January 5 in Buffalo, N.Y.
Should any Eagles make the U.S. National Junior team, they would likely miss the two-day Dartmouth Tournament on December 30-31 against Colgate and either Mercyhurst or Dartmouth. Last year, BC's Chris Kreider had an outstanding IIHF World Juniors tournament and carried that momentum into a strong second half of the season.