On the first Monday in February, the Boston Garden fills to the halfway mark for the early game of the 34th Beanpot Hockey Tournament--which matches the B.C., B.U., Harvard and Northeastern men's hockey teams in a battle for Boston bragging rights--and then empties and fills halfway again for the nightcap.

On the second Monday in February, the two first-round losers pit their second stringers against each other at 5:30 p.m. for the benefit of the 14,000 empty seats, six vendors and two bands on hand.

The first-round winners take to the ice after the opener is decided to the cheers and screams of the assembled throng of 15,000 fans--Terriers, Eagles, Huskies and a more somber contingent in Crimson--who have trekked to the Garden to watch them view for Hub hockey honors.

The last time the Harvard hockey team got to play for a full Garden was five years ago, when Crimson goalie Wade Lau shut out Boston College, 2-0, to give Harvard its first tournament crown since 1977.

In the last four years, however, the Crimson has nearly been shut out in Beanpot play, winning only once--in a 6-5 squeaker over the Eagles last year--while compiling a 1-7 tournament mark.

The 1-7 mark is discouraging, but the most significant aspect of the Crimson's failure to bring home the Pot is Harvard's failure to make it to the final game any of the last four years.

Playing those early games is frustrating not only because no one's there, but because the players have to suffer the ignominy of watching the Garden slowly fill up at the end of the second and through the third period.

The latecomers, all 10,000 of them, don't add any excitement to the consolation game, and actually make it all the worse by entirely ignoring the contest as they walk around discussing the upcoming battle for championship.

"Nobody wants to play the consolation game," Harvard Captain Scott Fusco said last year before he was relegated to his third. "Nobody wants to be there."

But those recent misfortunes may be reversed this year--in part because of last year's consolation game triumph.

Huh?

Well, the last three times Harvard has finished third in the Beanpot, it has come home victorious the next year.

The most recent third place Crimson finish was in 1980, when the Cantabs dropped the opening contest to B.C., 4-3, but came back to defeat B. U., 7-4, in the consolation match.

Lau's heroies the following year brought the Pot to Cambridge for the eighth time.

Harvard also finished third in 1973 and 1976--and captured the Pot in 1974 and 1977.

But if fate is on Harvard's side, so is a powerful squad.

The Crimson--picked fourth in the national preseason poll--is led by goalie Grant Blair and Fusco, two of the nation's top collegiate players.

And Harvard has improved its chances considerably since last season with the addition of three top-notch freshman, one of whom is Chris Biotti--a first round draft choice of the Calgary Flames.

Talent--and desire--are working in the Crimson's favor this year.

"That's a big goal for us," Fusco says, "to win the Beanpot.

"I've been going to the Beanpot since I was 10 or 12. It's a shame not to get a chance to win it."

The Crimson has had its chances. But in the last four years something has always worked against the Cantabs--and sent them home Potless.

"Harvard's had some good teams in those years," Northeastern Coach Fern Flaman says. "Maybe the other teams have just been luckier."

Flaman's own Huntington Avenue Hounds have won two Pots in a row. Last year, his 13-19 Northeastern squad walked all over highly-touted B.U. and B.C. on its way to its third Pot.

It took the Huskies 28 years to claim their first tourney and now they've claimed three in six years.

"I'm fortunate to have done so well recently," Flaman says.

Were the Hounds lucky?

Every dog has his day. But not twice.

And Northeastern will be a strong contender to repeat as Pot champs. But the Eagles and Terriers also may come home with the prized cauldron.

B.C. has the number one preseason ranking, but for all his success, Coach Len Ceglarski has only brought home the beans three times in 13 years.

The Terriers have had more success in early February. Their coach, Jack Parker, centered three Pot champions (1966-68) and B.U. is the last squad to claim the event three years in a row (1971-1973).

The Crimson isn't looking for three Pots right now, it would settle for just one.

"I wouldn't bet against them," B.U. Assistant Coach Ben Smith says.

One of the apparent repercussions of winning a Beanpot, though, is doing poorly in the post-season playoffs, where many Harvard teams--including last year's squad that claimed a bid to the NCAA tournament--have shined.

But that hasn't tempered the desire of Crimson Coach Bill Clearly (the 1955 Beanpot MVP) to snag his fifth Beanpot--and fourth as a coach.

"The team that's won has been croaked in the playoffs," Cleary says. "But we still want to win it."

It's a tournament with no seedings and no favorites. And for a game that's played on ice, the action gets awfully hot.

But with its third place finish last year, the Crimson may have just the spark it needs to go over the top for the ninth time in its history.

"It's our time to win," Cleary says.