For the fourth time in the last five seasons, the Maine Mariners are in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. This year, for the first time, they are higher seed in the first round – meaning home ice advantage for the first time as well. Their first-round opponent is a familiar foe in the Adirondack Thunder, setting up a rematch from the last Mariners’ postseason appearance two years ago. The Mariners played 15 games against Adirondack this season, more than any other opponent.

NORTH DIVISION SEMIFINALS SCHEDULE (Best of Seven)

Game 1 – Fri, Apr. 24 | 6:00 PM | Cross Insurance Arena – Portland, ME
Game 2 – Sat, Apr. 25 | 6:00 PM | Cross Insurance Arena – Portland, ME
Game 3 – Weds, Apr. 29 | 7:00 PM | Harding Mazzotti Arena – Glens Falls, NY
Game 4 – Fri, May 1 | 7:00 PM | Harding Mazzotti Arena – Glens Falls, NY
Game 5* – Sat, May 2 | 7:00 PM | Harding Mazzotti Arena – Glens Falls, NY
Game 6* – Tues, May 5 | 7:00 PM | Cross Insurance Arena – Portland, ME
Game 7* – Weds, May 6 | 7:00 PM | Cross Insurance Arena – Portland, ME

*if necessary

REGULAR SEASON SYNOPSIS

Maine Mariners (42-21-6-3, 2^nd place in the North Division)
Under first year Head Coach & General Manager Rick Kowalsky, the Mariners enjoyed their best season in team history, setting a franchise best points mark of 93, and tying the 2022-23 squad with 42 wins. The second-place finish in the North was also a team best, finishing just five points behind the division champion Wheeling Nailers.

The Mariners hit their stride when the calendar turned to 2026, going 27-6-2-1 in the 36 games between January 4^th and March 29^th. The highlight was a franchise record 11-game win streak from February 13^th to March 10^th which included eight road wins and ultimately solidified the Mariners as a playoff team. 

The Mariners special teams units were a huge driver of their success in 2025-26, ranking in the ECHL top 5 in both power play and penalty kill. The power play clipped at 21.8% (5^th), while the kill came in at 85.1% (also 5^th), including an impressive run down the stretch, at one point killing off 32 consecutive times shorthanded from mid-March into early April.

Adirondack Thunder (37-24-10-1, 3^rd place in the North Division)
Like the Mariners, Adirondack’s season was defined by an extended winning streak – as the Thunder rattled off 10 in a row from February 1^st to February 25^th. It was the Mariners that ended their run on February 27^th and sent the Thunder sliding to the end of the season. Adirondack won just six of their final 23 games (6-11-6), including dropping 10 of their final 13 in the regular season.

Despite the late season struggles, it was an overall solid campaign for Adirondack, bouncing back from a last place finish in 2024-25 and qualifying for the postseason for the seventh time in their 10-year history. The Thunder played a league-leading 24 extra-time games (overtime or shootout), allowing them to consistently pick up points even in losses.

The Thunder also have a new Head Coach this season, with Sylvain Cloutier at the helm, promoted from the North American Hockey League, where he spent three seasons running the Corpus Christi IceRays. Cloutier had existing Glens Falls connections, having played for the AHL’s Adirondack Red Wings in the 1990s and later the UHL’s Adirondack Frostbite in the early 2000s.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Maine Mariners

Brooklyn Kalmikov, F – Kalmikov has been the model of consistency throughout his four-year ECHL career and posted a new career high 62 points in 2025-26, tying Max Andreev for the team lead. He represented the Mariners at the ECHL All-Star Classic for the second year in a row and was the ECHL Player of the Week for November 3-9.  Kalmikov broke the Mariners career games played record on April 10^th against Norfolk, when he skated in his 194^th Mariners contest.

Robert Cronin, F – Cronin was the only Mariners player to skate in all 72 regular season games and was one of the ECHL’s standout rookies this season. His 56 points ranked fourth among all first-year ECHLers, despite his snub from the All-Rookie team. Cronin led all Mariners in scoring vs. the Thunder this season, posting 13 points (5 goals, 8 assists) in the 15 head-to-head meetings.

Brad Arvanitis, G – Now in his third season as a Mariner, Arvanitis posted his best season as a pro, tying for the best save percentage in the ECHL (.929) with Wheeling’s Taylor Gauthier. His goals-against average of 2.17 also ranked him 4^th. Carrying the load through February during Luke Cavallin’s recall to Providence, Arvanitis was named the ECHL Goaltender of the Month, winning nine starts in a row between Feb. 13 and Mar. 10. In nine starts against Adirondack, he was 4-1-2-1, with a 2.15 GAA and a .926 SV%, notably better than Cavallin’s numbers in the head-to-head.

Adirondack Thunder

Brannon McManus, F – There was perhaps no bigger offseason signing around the ECHL than the Adirondack acquisition of Brannon McManus. Coming over from the Fort Wayne Komets, McManus shattered his career highs in goals (31), assists (36), and points (67) in his first year with the Thunder, finishing 8^th in the ECHL in scoring. He was the All-Star Classic MVP and was named to the All-ECHL Second Team. He posted 13 points (6 goals, 7 assists) in the 15 games against Maine, to lead all Thunder scorers. 

Tyson Fawcett, F – What would Tyson Fawcett’s season have looked like if not for the Mariners? Of his nine goals all season long, seven of them came against Maine. One of several long-time ECHLers on Adirondack’s roster, Fawcett surpassed 500 career games played this season. He’s been incredibly durable, skating in at least 70 games in each of the last three seasons. Stunningly, this will be he first postseason appearance.

Jeremy Brodeur, G – The former Mariners netminder enjoyed a breakout season in the Thunder net and did a lot of damage against his former team. While Brodeur was good against most foes, he saved his best for the Mariners, winning seven of his eight starts against Maine, with a GAA of 1.94 and a SV% of 2.90. At 2,475 minutes played, only four more goaltenders in the ECHL saw more time in net this season.

REGULAR SEASON SERIES (ADK won 10-2-2-1)

While the season series appears lopsided in favor of Adirondack on record alone, a deeper dive tells a different story. The Thunder won seven of the first eight meetings (including seven in a row after the opening game), but the Mariners went 4-1-1-1 over the second portion of the head-to-head, including an improbable 5-goal comeback in the season series finale on Apr. 8, ultimately ending in a shootout defeat. A whopping eight of the 15 meetings between the teams went beyond regulation – the Thunder collecting wins in five of those. Interestingly, the Mariners won more games (3) at Harding Mazzotti Arena than they did in Portland (2) during the season series.

PLAYOFF REMATCH

Two years ago, the Mariners and Thunder met in the North Division Semifinals and went the distance in a grueling seven game series. The Mariners, heavy underdogs as the #4 seed and having clinched on the final day of the regular season, stole Game 1 in Glens Falls, and later led the series, two games to one. After dropping Games 4 and 5 at home, the Mariners went back to Glens Falls and won Game 6 to force the series to a decisive seventh game. Isaac Poulter, who had three shutouts in the series for Adirondack, stifled the Mariners in a 2-0 Game 7 win. Adirondack would advance all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, before falling to the eventual Kelly Cup champion Florida Everblades. Five current Mariners (Deveaux, Kalmikov, Cheveldayoff, Lamppa and Arvanitis) and three Thunder players (Wheeler, Van de Leest, Brodeur) appeared in that series. Colin Felix, who is on the Mariners “Playoff Eligible” list, played in the series for Adirondack. 

AROUND THE KELLY CUP PLAYOFF BRACKET

North Semifinal: #1 Wheeling Nailers vs. #4 Reading Royals 
South Semifinal: #1 Florida Everblades vs. #4 Savannah Ghost Pirates
South Semifinal: #2 South Carolina Stingrays vs. #3 Atlanta Gladiators
Central Semifinal: #1 Fort Wayne Komets vs. #4 Indy Fuel 
Central Semifinal: #2 Toledo Walleye vs. #3 Bloomington Bison
Mountain Semifinal: #1 Kansas City Mavericks vs. #4 Tahoe Knight Monsters
Mountain Semifinal: #2 Allen Americans vs. #3 Idaho Steelheads

The Mariners 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs are presented by Evergreen Credit Union. Tickets to all first-round home games are available now at MarinersOfMaine.com/playoffs. A playoff block party will be held on Center Street prior to Game 1 from 4-6 PM, with watch parties planned for various locations during road games. All games will be live streamed on the Mariners Broadcast Network via FloHockey.tv and MarinersOfMaine.com/listen or the Mixlr App, with pregame coverage beginning 15 minutes prior to puck drop.