For Mike Eruzione, winning the Beanpot ranks up there with his Olympic gold medal. Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni knows that it is the one prize his alumni want most.

For Harvard hockey players and fans, the last two Beanpots have run the gamut of emotions.

Two years ago, captain Ted Drury (now playing with the Hartford Whalers) scored two goals and netminder Tripp Tracy '96 stood on his head with death-defying saves to defeat heavily-favored Boston University, 4-2.

But last season the Crimson came down on the other end of an upset, as Boston College downed Harvard in overtime, 2-1, when Tom Ashe's slap shot from the blue line eluded Harvard goalie Aaron Israel.

Yes, the memories are always thick at the Beanpot, where college hockey hands out the bragging rights for Boston. And this year, as the tournament makes its last visit to the Boston Garden, they are thicker than ever.

After 41 Beanpots (the first two were in Boston Arena) and a few other notable sporting events, the Garden will close this summer to make way for the adjacent Shawmut Center. And the Beanpot will go with it.

"This is the end of Chapter 1: The garden Years," Northeastern coach Ben Smith said at the pre-tournament luncheon last week.

B.U. (11-4-3) meets Northeastern (8-6-4) in the opener at 6 p.m. Monday. Harvard (11-7-1) will try to avenge last year's loss when it squares off against B.C. (7-9-2) in the nightcap, which is scheduled to start at 9 p.m.

The finals and consolation game will be the following week.

For Harvard to avenge its heart breaking 1994Beanpot loss tonight, it will have to find a wayto beat Eagle goalie Greg Taylor. Taylor was namedthe MVP of last year's tournament, and he hasalready broken the Hockey East single-game saverecord with his 60 stops in a loss to B.U. back inJanuary.

"We faced some pretty good goaltending over theweekend, and we will face another good goalietonight," Tomassoni said.

After having 20 days off, the Crimson lost toPrinceton Friday and defeated Yale Saturday, sotonight's match should test the team'sconditioning.

B.C., on the other hand, only played on Friday.

The one break Harvard got was that Saturday'sgame was an afternoon affair, so the players wereat least able to eat and rest up Saturday night.

"We're certainly not where we were heading intoexams," Tomassoni said. "But I want to thank [YaleCoach] Tim Taylor for agreeing to play anafternoon game. He didn't have to do that, but hedid it in the best interests of the ECAC."

Harvard has won the Beanpot nine times andfinished second 13 times.