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Maine Mariners
Maine mariners 200x200
City: Portland, Maine
League: American Hockey League
Operated: 1977 to 1992
Home Arena: Cumberland County Civic Center
Colors: orange and black; black and gold (when Boston Bruins affiliate)
Affiliates: Philadelphia Flyers,
New Jersey Devils,
Boston Bruins
Franchise history
1977 to 1992: Maine Mariners
1992 to present: Providence Bruins
Championships
Regular Season Titles: two (1977–78, 1978–79)
Division Championships: five (1977–78,
1978–79, 1980–81,
1984–85, 1987–88)
Calder Cups: three (1977–78,
1978–79, 1983–84)

The Maine Mariners were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Portland, Maine, USA at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

History[]

The Philadelphia Flyers were the Mariners’ first NHL affiliation. There were three bids to put an AHL team in Portland from Quebec, the Rhode Island Reds, and Philadelphia. Quebec wanted a team to play in both Lewiston and Portland. The previous year they had placed a team in Lewiston called the Maine Nordiques. The Rhode Island Reds were an established AHL franchise (They had played the first professional hockey game in the new Cumberland County Civic Center in the Spring of 1977 against the Springfield Indians) and wanted to schedule just a few home games in Portland. Philadelphia made the only offer to put an AHL franchise in Portland only. The Maine Nordique franchise folded once the Maine Mariners began.

Bob McCammon was the team's first head coach. The first regular season game in franchise history was against the Binghamton Broome Dusters at Portland.

The Mariners are the only franchise in league history to win the Calder Cup title in their first two seasons (1977–78, 1978–79) and are just the second team ever to capture the Calder Cup during their inaugural season. The feat was also matched by the team that brought AHL hockey back to Portland, the Portland Pirates.

Maine returned to the Calder Cup final in 1980–81 and first-year goaltender Pelle Lindbergh became the only goaltender in AHL history, and just the third player ever, to win the AHL regular season MVP and AHL outstanding rookie award in the same season. Bob McCammon won his second AHL coach of the year award.

In 1983–1984 the franchise was taken over by the New Jersey Devils of the NHL. The same season Maine became only the fourth team in AHL history to win a Calder Cup title with a losing regular season record. The Mariners defeated the Rochester Americans in a rematch of the previous year’s finals four games to one. It was the local’s third Calder Cup crown and their fifth finals appearance in seven years. Maine’s championship year was truly a team effort as no members of the club made the all-star team, won a league award during the regular season, or placed in the regular season top ten in scoring. Bud Stefanski was the first recipient of the new AHL playoff MVP award.

The affiliation changed again after the 1986-87 season when the Mariners were moved to New York and became known as the Utica Devils. An expansion team was created that same winter and was supplied by players from the Boston Bruins. The affiliation not only changed but also the team colors. The Mariners had always worn the uniform colors of the Philadelphia Flyers, orange and white with black trim. Boston changed the colors to Bruins black, gold and white. Boston had the franchise in Portland for five years, until 1991–1992. The 1991–1992 campaign was the final one for the Maine Mariners as the franchise was moved to Providence, RI and renamed the Providence Bruins.

This market was previously served by:

This market is now the home to:

Season-by-season results[]

Regular Season[]

Season Games Won Lost Tied OTL Points Goals
for
Goals
against
Standing
1977–78 80 43 28 9 95 305 256 1st, North
1978–79 80 45 22 13 103 350 252 1st, North
1979–80 80 41 28 11 93 307 266 3rd, North
1980–81 80 45 28 7 97 319 292 1st, North
1981–82 80 47 26 7 101 325 272 2nd, North
1982–83 80 39 33 8 86 342 309 3rd, North
1983–84 80 33 36 11 77 310 312 3rd, North
1984–85 80 38 32 10 86 296 266 1st, North
1985–86 80 40 31 9 89 274 285 2nd, North
1986–87 80 35 40 5 75 272 298 5th, North
1987–88 80 44 25 7 4 99 308 284 1st, North
1988–89 80 32 40 8 72 262 317 5th, North
1989–90 80 31 38 11 73 294 317 5th, North
1990–91 80 34 34 12 80 269 284 5th, North
1991–92 80 23 47 10 56 296 352 5th, North

Playoffs[]

Season Prelim 1st round 2nd round Finals
1977–78 bye W, 4–3, NS W, 4–1, NH
1978–79 bye W, 4–2, NS W, 4–0, NH
1979–80 W, 4–2, NS L, 2–4, NB
1980–81 W, 4–3, SPR W, 4–3, NB L, 2–4, ADIR
1981–82 L, 1–3, NS
1982–83 W, 4–3, NS W, 4–2, FRED L, 0–4, ROCH
1983–84 W, 4–3, ADIR W, 4–1, NS W, 4–1, ROCH
1984–85 W, 4–2, NS L, 1–4, SHER
1985–86 L, 1–4, MONC
1986–87 Out of playoffs.
1987–88 W, 4–1, NS L, 1–4, FRED
1988–89 Out of playoffs.
1989–90 Out of playoffs.
1990–91 L, 7–12, FRED
1991–92 Out of playoffs.

Two game combined total goals series.


External links[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Maine Mariners. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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