The Maine Mariners will open up postseason play on Friday night at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland when they host the Adirondack Thunder in game one of a best of seven North Division Semifinal Kelly Cup Playoff series.
The Mariners (42-21-6-3), who finished the regular season by going 27-6-2-1 in their final 35 games including a franchise best 11-game win streak, will bring a top 5 powerplay and top 5 penalty kill into the series with Adirondack (37-24-10-1). The Thunder had a lopsided edge in head to head matchups during the regular season (10-2-3), but all that is wiped away as the postseason begins. 8 of the 15 games between the teams this season have gone to overtime.
Maine set a franchise record as well for most points in a season (93) and will have the home ice advantage over Adirondack by finishing second in the North Division, and is set to host games one and two along with games six and seven (if necessary). The key players to watch for the Mariners will be Brooklyn Kalmikov (21 goals, 41 assists), Max Andreev (19 goals, 43 assists), Robert Cronin (19 goals, 37 assists), and Jacob Hudson (23 goals, 26 assists). The team went 21.8% on the powerplay and the penalty kill was also up near the top of the league at 85.1%. Maine is led between the pipes by Brad Arvanitis (22-11-3, 2.17 goals against average) and Luke Cavallin (18-10-3, 2.35 GAA). The full schedule for the series is listed below. Chris Lessner will be on hand with the coverage for both games one and two.
Game 1- Friday, April 24th Adirondack at Maine- 6 p.m.
Game 2- Saturday, April 25th Adirondack at Maine- 6 p.m.
Game 3- Wednesday, April 29th Maine at Adirondack- 7 p.m.
Game 4- Friday, May 1st Maine at Adirondack- 7 p.m.
Game 5- Saturday, May 2nd Maine at Adirondack- 7 p.m. (if necessary)
Game 6- Tuesday, May 5th Adirondack at Maine- 7 p.m. (if necessary)
Game 7- Wednesday, May 6th Adirondack at Maine- 7 p.m. (if necessary)
Photo from the Maine Mariners
