It may not be the Beanpot, but it could be the next best thing.

On Saturday, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Minnesota College Hockey Showcase will take place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The event will feature two conference games, one between St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth and another between Minnesota State and Minnesota.

The “day of college hockey,” as Mavericks coach Troy Jutting described it, should be a celebration of the game that might only be better if it were played outdoors (The new Gophers and Twins stadiums seem like good venues for the future, don’t they?).

Minnesota, the self-proclaimed “state of hockey,” deserves to have such an event that pays tribute to the game yet doesn’t overshadow the WCHA Final Five, which is also held at the X every March.

“I think it’s neat for the fans,” Jutting said. “If you’re a college-hockey fan and have the opportunity to see two games like that in one setting, I don’t know if it gets a whole bunch better than that.”

Each February in Boston, the city’s four college-hockey teams — Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern — play for the Beanpot, an event that takes place over two Mondays, one for the semifinals and one for the championship and third-place games.

Minnesota has five Division I teams, with Bemidji State of the dwindling College Hockey America conference being the other. For years, people have wondered about the possibility of creating a similar tournament here.

While this might not be a tournament format, Jutting said, “These are league games with points (for the standings) on the line.”

It took the efforts of Minnesota State and Minnesota Duluth, who saw there was money to be made in such a project, namely by moving their home games to St. Paul and taking advantage of the Gophers’ fan base in the Twin Cities that they hope will fill up the arena.

In 2005, MSU moved a home game against Minnesota to the X, and 17,000 people saw the Gophers defeat the Mavericks in a wild, 9-6 game. Minnesota State made approximately $130,000 from that event.

“I think we’re in a position to have the same kind of financial windfall,” MSU athletic director Kevin Buisman said in a press conference announcing the event last March.

Jutting also likes the notion that Saturday’s doubleheader will be full of Minnesota kids (no offense to his out-of-state players, I’m sure). Eighty of the 108 players on the fours teams’ rosters are Minnesota natives.

“Being a Minnesota kid, I think it’s going to be pretty fun,” said Mavericks senior Brian Kilburg, a St. Paul native. “I think (the Showcase) is something good. Hopefully, they’ll continue it. It’s another tradition, like Hockey Day in Minnesota, the state high school tournament and the Final Five.”

Of course, most Maverick fans want to see just one thing: a rematch of last March’s WCHA playoff series against the Gophers, which Minnesota won after three thrilling overtime games.

Nothing — not even a beanpot — was going to add intrigue and drama to games like those.