TROY, N.Y.—It is the Beanpot matchup everybody wanted to see, the No. 10 Harvard men’s hockey team against No. 1 Boston College, and at 5 p.m. today, the two squads will clash on the FleetCenter ice. But in the consolation round?

It is an unexpected twist, but one that in no way lessens the importance of the game for the Crimson (15-6-2, 12-4-1 ECAC). The more wins Harvard can garner against quality teams, the easier it will become for the squad to crack the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid.

It is a situation reflected in the pairwise rankings, a system that predicts tournament selection.

Tonight provides a prime opportunity for Harvard to help its own cause. The Crimson is currently ninth, and BC tied for third.

Harvard has already beaten the Eagles (18-4-5, 12-1-5 Hockey East) once this season, 3-1, when the latter was tops in the country.

In fact, the Crimson has already downed a slew of top-15 teams (then-No. 10 Boston University, then-No. 10 Vermont, then-No. 11 Maine, and then-No. 9 Cornell), but Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 still deems tonight’s matchup “what may be our biggest game for the rest of the year as far as the NCAA tournament goes.”

In two of the three previous seasons, Harvard has had to depend on winning the 12-team ECAC tournament to make the NCAAs.

This time around, explained captain Noah Welch at the beginning of this year, “I don’t really want to do that.

“That’s a little too much to rely on at the end of the season.”

A win tonight would certainly help the Crimson, though it will not come easily.

Boston College has lost just once in its last 15 games. And that loss? To the Terriers in last Monday’s Beanpot semifinals, just as Harvard fell to underdog Northeastern.

The Eagles are putting up 3.30 goals per game these days, spearheaded by the 39-point and 30-point seasons by junior Patrick Eaves and captain Ryan Shannon, respectively.

“Other than [tonight],” Donato said of the remainder of the regular season. “I don’t think we’ll play somebody, pairwise, that is as important.”

BELLS AND WHISTLES

All in all, Friday’s game at Rensselaer’s Houston Fieldhouse saw 29 penalties and 106 minutes assessed.