BOSTON -- Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni didn't expect the school to change its exam schedule to give the hockey team a better shot at winning the Beanpot, just as his predecessors couldn't make the Boston Garden rink bigger so their fast-skating teams would have more room.

The one thing Harvard could do, though, was beg its conference for a night off before the annual tournament of Boston's college hockey powers. This year, the Eastern College Athletic Conference finally agreed.

And now there are no more excuses.

"Our league has accommodated us," Mazzoleni said last week as he prepared his team for the 51st Beanpot. "We actually get a preparation day, so it is going to be a little bit different."

Harvard (13-6-1) will face Boston University (15-10-2) in the early game tonight, with Northeastern (9-14-2) and Boston College (17-6-3) playing later. The winners will play for the city's bragging rights the next Monday, after the losers meet in the consolation game -- a position all too familiar for the Crimson.

Harvard has won the Beanpot just twice in the past 20 years, and it hasn't been a lack of talent. The Crimson last won the tournament in 1993. Since then, they've made the championship game just twice, losing to Boston University 2-1 in overtime in '94 and '98. Six times in the past eight years, they finished last.

The reasons for the team's troubles have been puzzling. An early theory was that the team was ill-suited for the small ice sheet at the small ice at the Garden, but nothing changed after it was torn down and replaced by the more accommodating FleetCenter.

Some wondered whether Harvard was at a disadvantage because its exams are in January. With Christmas break, study period and exams, this year's team was idle for three weeks before getting back on the ice for a 3-1 victory over Brown on Friday night.

Others suggest that the team had the opposite problem: Because the ECAC scheduled Harvard for games on Friday and Saturday nights before Beanpot Monday -- often with long bus rides -- the Crimson were exhausted when the tournament came around. None of the other Beanpot schools had to play three games in four days.

"It's a huge difference," said captain Dominic Moore, who noted that last year Harvard got back on a bus from Cornell early Sunday morning and had not much more than a pep talk in preparation for the Beanpot; the Crimson lost 5-2 to Northeastern and 4-0 to Boston College in the consolation game.

"To have to turn around in one day and play in a tournament as important as the Beanpot is tough," Moore said.

But this year, the ECAC gave Harvard a break. The team played at home against Brown on Friday and took Saturday night off.

"Twenty years too late," BU coach Jack Parker said. "I don't think there's any question that was a handicap. Playing three games in four nights -- that's not right."

Mazzoleni said the conference may have been persuaded by the fact that Harvard's annual nonconference losses may have been hurting the league when it came time to hand out berths in the NCAA Tournament.

"They are recognizing the value of giving Harvard the opportunity to put its best foot forward in the Beanpot," he said. "We've been working on it for years. "It doesn't speak well for the ECAC if Harvard doesn't do well in the Beanpot."