Both teams want the Bean-pot. Badly.

Harvard, however, suffered its first ECAC loss two nights ago when it relinquished a 3-0 lead to Rensselaer in Troy, N.Y.

The Terriers, on the other hand, scored a 4-0 victory over New Hampshire in their last game.

But the history, the records, the jungle of numbers that leads to nothing but overinflated and suffocating hype won't help answer the question on everyone's mind.

Who's going to win the game tonight?

"In the past, BU has been better than us," junior Lou Body said. "This year, we know we're better. We're going into the game thinking BU can't beat us."

The Crimson looked sluggish against RPI, committing ill-timed penalties and turnovers and succumbing to a fired-up Engineer team at home.

But Body said the loss may serve as a motivational tool that will give Harvard the edge.

"We took in it on the chin against RPI," Body said. "But the loss has just wetted our whistles even more. We don't like the taste of losing, and if we fire on all cylinders, there isn't a team that can beat us."

With the return of sophomore Steve Martins, who scored a goal against RPI, and junior Derek Maguire on defense, the Crimson is poised to win the Beanpot as expected.

In its last two games, however, Harvard did not "fire on all cylinders," and hasn't shaken off that post-exam time funk. An outbreak of the flu has also slowed the Crimson this week.

The problem is that the Terriers won't be too sympathetic about Harvard's trouble with sickness. With BU fans whipping the Garden into a frenzy and Parker on the sidelines conjuring up the Causeway spirits like Prospero, the Terriers will do everything in their power to humiliate the Crimson.

"Our focus has been to transform the Garden into our rink," Crimson senior Matt Mallgrave said.

To make the Garden Harvard's rink, the Crimson must stop the speedy BU forwards and find a way to crack Terrier goalie Scott Cashman's code.

Cashman has won the Beanpot's Eberly Award as the Tournament's top netminder twice in the last three years and is going for his third this season. If he wins, he will be the first goalie in Beanpot history to receive the award three times.