Three long years. Six straight losses. It's all a distant memory now.

The Harvard men's hockey team will look to the future tonight, as the team faces third-ranked Boston University at the FleetCenter in the championship match of the 1998 Beanpot.

And yes, it's as big as it sounds. A win tonight would give the Crimson its first Beanpot title since 1993.

"To win tonight would be unbelievable", said freshman Harry Schwefel. "We only get four shots at this kind of thing. Kids grow up wanting to come to one of these four schools just to get a chance to play in the Beanpot. It'll definitely be a battle, but if we show up and play our game, we can beat them."

"Obviously it's something we are very excited for," said senior Doug Sproule. It's an opportunity we've missed for a couple years now, and it would be great to go out with a bang."

Indeed, for the team's three seniors, tonight will be a long-awaited chance to see a dream fulfilled.

The Crimson has struggled in its three most recent Beanpot tournaments, and entered last Monday's contest fully aware that another loss would mark the seventh straight for the team in the highly celebrated tournament.

After Monday's game, however, it was evident that the sands were beginning to shift.

Harvard earned its place in tonight's match following a stunning overtime defeat of Boston College. The Crimson rallied from behind an early 3-0 Eagles lead to skate to a 4-4 tie in regulation.

Freshman Chris Bala netted the game winner at the 2:41 mark of overtime to secure Harvard's berth in the championship match.

The game was the first played by the Crimson in 24 days--it showed.

The first period was dominated by the opposition, as Harvard struggled to recapture the strength and speed of its previous matches.

Tonight, any such hesitation would likely prove deadly.

"With a team like B.U. we need to come out alot quicker," Sproule said. "Obviously as a teamwe played pretty poorly for about a period and ahalf and dug ourselves into a hole.

"Luckily, we were able to pull ourselves out ofit, which is one of our strengths as a team. But Idon't think we can succeed if we do that againstB.U.--if we get behind we won't be able to getback."

The Crimson, however, should have littletrouble getting into the groove tonight, as theteam hosted two tough ECAC games this pastweekend.