If you aren’t seeing a lot of casual Gopher hockey fans around Mankato this year, there’s good reason.

First, a little history:

In the fall of 2003, the Minnesota State men’s hockey team was coming off its best season as a Division I program.

The previous season, the Mavericks, led by All-Americans Grant Stevenson and Shane Joseph and gritty captain B.J. (Mr. Maverick) Abel, finished in a tie for second place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and earned a berth into the NCAA tournament.

Although there was added interest in the program after that, the team had a much different look come October.

Stevenson signed a fat, free-agent contract with the San Jose Sharks in the offseason, forgoing his final two seasons of college hockey. Abel graduated along with a pair of senior defensemen. And three other defensemen were lost for the season with injury before the first games were even played.

Quickly, most of the momentum and motivation from that great season had melted away.

That’s why this year feels unlike any of the Mavericks’ first nine in the WCHA. It just might be their first season of great expectations.

Minnesota State will hold its first official practice of the 2008-09 season Saturday morning at All Seasons Arena and, just six days later, open the season with the first game of a nonconference home series against Bemidji State.

Coach Troy Jutting’s team returns its top goalie and most valuable player, Mike Zacharias, its top point scorer, Trevor Bruess, and its top goal scorer, Mick Berge. Only three everyday players were lost in the offseason, including just one defenseman from what was, arguably, Jutting’s best defensive team.

If a fourth-place WCHA finish and home-ice advantage in the conference playoffs was a surprise last year, it won’t be this year.

But experience isn’t the only thing driving this veteran club or the preseason excitement surrounding it.

A few moments last March changed the entire attitude.

The last time there was ice in the Alltel Center, the Mavericks lost two of three games in a classic playoff series against Minnesota that continued to be talked about throughout the spring and summer. A total of five overtime periods were needed to decide the series. That included the Mavericks’ 1-0 double-overtime victory in Game 1 and the Gophers’ 3-2 double-overtime win in Game 3. (In between, Minnesota won 1-0 in one overtime.)

As if that series wasn’t crushing enough, a week later came the snub.