Max Andreev, right, a Sebastian Vidmar of the Mariners celebrate after Vidmar scored with an assist from Andreev on Wednesday in Portland. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

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PORTLAND — It’s been almost three decades since Rick Kowalsky was last part of a playoff hockey team in Portland, and a lot has changed since the 1997-98 season.

For starters, there’s the team itself. The Portland Pirates, then the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, no longer exists. The current pro team in Portland, the Maine Mariners, are an ECHL squad affiliated with the Boston Bruins. Then there’s Kowalsky’s relationship with the game. A 16-year veteran, he played 108 games at right wing for the Pirates from 1996-99. Last summer, he was named the Mariners’ coach and general manager.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the anticipation surrounding a home playoff game.

“The fans have been great all year, so I expect the atmosphere to be good,” Kowalsky said Wednesday. “I think the biggest thing, and we’re kind of going through it right now, is you kind of want to just fast forward to that, but you got to get through to the end of the season here. Maybe that’s a little bit of the hangover, so to speak, tonight. But no, I think the way the crowds have been, and the atmosphere, and the success we’ve had here, I think everybody’s really excited to get going.”

For the first time in franchise history, the Mariners (42-20-6-3; 93 points) will be the higher seed in a Kelly Cup playoff series and will host the first two games at Cross Insurance Arena on April 24 and 25. Maine’s 3-1 loss to Worcester in the home finale on Wednesday, a game originally scheduled for Dec. 26 but postponed because of a league-wide strike, had no impact on the playoff seeding.

Maine locked up the North Division’s No. 2 seed with a 7-2 win over Norfolk on April 11 but will have to wait until Sunday to find out if Reading (82 points, two games remaining) or Adirondack (81 points, three games remaining) secures the third seed. Maine could set a franchise record for single-season wins Saturday at Trois-Rivieres. Maine also 42 games in the 2022-23 season.

The turnaround means a lot for players who were with the team last year, when the Mariners matched the franchise record for losses (39) and missed the Kelly Cup playoffs for the first time since joining the ECHL in 2018-19. It’s just as meaningful for captain Wyllum Deveaux, who suffered an injury during the first period of the season opener that kept him sidelined until April.

“We’ve chatted at the start of the year, and after last season, we knew it wasn’t the results (we wanted), it’s not acceptable, and we needed to respond,” Deveaux said. “Having those guys back who endured the pain and went through the adversity, and then adding new layers and players that Rick brought in, you know, it’s a special group, and privileged to be a part of it.”

With the absence of Deveaux, a center, and another injury to defenseman and alternate captain Zachary Massicotte, who was out from late November until late March, the team was being tested on and off the ice.

The labor strike in late December gave the Mariners some needed rest, with 11 days off in between games. Kowalsky made two transactions the first week of 2026, trading for wingers Antonio Venuto (20 points in 43 games) and Zach Jordan (25 points in 43 games).

“I don’t want to say it turned our season around,” Kowalsky said. “But our season went from kind of a little bit of an up-down, from that point (it) was a straight upward trajectory.”

A franchise-record 11-game winning streak that started in mid-February gave the Mariners a new level of confidence, and they won eight of their last 11 home games.

“Our games wavered a few times, but I think there’s never really been any game where we’ve been completely — maybe a few — where we’ve been completely out of it,” alternate captain Sebastian Vidmar said. “But you can feel it in the team that we have that little spark that it’s never really over.”

It was there Wednesday when Vidmar evened the game in the second period on a 3-on-2 rush, and when the Mariners furiously sent shots on goal in the final minute when trying to force overtime before an empty-netter by Worcester sealed the outcome.

“I think (the winning streak) showed that we’re a great hockey club,” Deveaux said. “We need to uphold that standard every night and continue to add layers and sharpen, and especially now with the playoffs clinched, we got to continue to hammer home our habits and play to our standard. That’s the biggest thing. I think our style of play will bode well for the playoffs, and we just need to commit to it.”