By Jared Sugerman

Thanks to the success of the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots during the last several months, Bostonians have owned bragging rights on the national sports scene.

But who holds the crowing credentials within the city itself? In Boston, we have the men’s and women’s Beanpot Tournament to help decide that.

Boston College (8-9-6, 4-6-2) won the 2007 women’s hockey Beanpot, earning themselves the right to boast from Chestnut Hill to the South End for one full year. But after two Tuesdays, that year will be complete, and the Eagles will head to BU’s Walter Brown Arena, along with Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern, to vie for the title.

“Every opportunity that you have to play you have to try to put your best foot forward and play to your potential. You always want to prove that you’re the better team. That’s the fun thing about the Beanpot,” said Northeastern head coach Laura Schuler.

Of the four women’s teams competing, Harvard is the only one to have distinguished itself as a championship contender this season. While BC, BU and Northeastern have all struggled to break free of the Hockey East pack, Harvard (17-1, 14-0) has been setting the standard in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and, just recently, surged to the top of national polls.

Northeastern (5-15-2, 4-7) has a first-round date with the Crimson tomorrow at 5 p.m. Though the match-up would certainly seem to favor Harvard, the Huskies will have at least a couple of things in their favor going into their first-round contest.

First, history will be on the Huskies’ side. The Northeastern women have been on the receiving end of 14 Beanpot trophy presentations, three more than Harvard, 12 more than BC and 13 more than BU in the history of the tournament.

Second, the challenge of facing the No. 1 team in the country is nothing new for Northeastern. Though they have yet to compete against Harvard this season, Northeastern lost New Hampshire, the team that Harvard supplanted as No. 1 three times this year.

“We know we have a tough battle coming out against Harvard first. You never know what’s going to happen, though. It’s only one game, and that’s kind of how we’re looking at it. You never know what way the puck’s going to drop,” said Schuler, who helped Northeastern win two Beanpot titles when she played for the Huskies from 1989-1993.

If the puck drops Northeastern’s way and they are able to upset Harvard, then the Huskies will have clinched themselves a spot in the 30th Beanpot Championship, where they would face the winner of the BU-BC first-round game, scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday. Northeastern is 0-1 against the Terriers (8-12-3, 5-6-1) this season, but won the regular season series against the Eagles 2-1.

Though the Beanpot offers an opportunity to prove which team is the best in Boston, the school that wins will get more perks than just a trophy.

“When we first start recruiting kids, we talk about the hype that the Beanpot gets, how much media coverage it gets,” Schuler said. “To be able to win a tournament that gets that much hype, I think it’s a huge selling factor for us.”

This year, the Beanpot will be broadcast for the first time on B2 Networks.

The consolation and championships games will be played Tuesday, Feb. 12. The consolation game will be at 5 p.m. and the puck drop for the championship game will be 8 p.m.