The Harvard men’s hockey team hasn’t skated away with the Beanpot since Feb. 8, 1993.

To put that in perspective, legendary Crimson coach Billy Cleary ’56 had ended his tenure behind the Harvard bench only three years before, and current coach Mark Mazzoleni was then an assistant at the University of Minnesota.

Crimson winger Dennis Packard turned 11 years old the next day. Freshman forward Andrew Lederman wasn’t even 10.

In short, it’s been awhile since the Harvard faithful was able to call its team the best in Boston. That could change this year with the No. 14 Crimson (9-8-3, 8-5-2 ECAC) playing arguably its best hockey since the 1993-94 campaign.

But it won’t be easy for Harvard. Not after being swept on the road by league rivals No. 11 Cornell and Colgate.

With the Crimson still trying to find its legs after the exam break and its collective tank on empty thanks to the long weekend road trip, Harvard will need to refocus and put forth its best effort if it hopes to skate off with the ’Pot.

“The difficult thing is that when you’re in the hunt for the league title you can’t really talk about [the Beanpot],” said Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni. “We [played] Friday and Saturday, had a short meeting on Sunday, and now we’re playing on Monday.”

“We’ll just play [one weekend game] going into the Beanpot next year, but we have to live with [the schedule] this year.”

Nevertheless, Mazzoleni knows how important this tournament is, both to the school and the city.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the Beanpot,” he said. “We have to get to the job done. It’s very

much up for grabs, and we’ve proven that when we’re at the top of our game we can beat anyone.”

With one of the more balanced Beanpot fields in recent memory, there is no such thing as an easy game for any of the teams in the tournament.

Harvard is no exception. Its first-round opponent, Northeastern, has been one of the hottest teams in Hockey East lately.

The Huskies (14-10-3, 8-7-2 Hockey East) went 5-2-1 in the month of January and has won 12 of its last 17 games after a slow start to the season.

Northeastern’s performance last month is even more impressive considering its competition. The Huskies split a home-and-home series with No. 10 Boston University and took both games of their series with No. 9 UMass-Lowell.