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The Icemen sure know how to turn a season around.

After a dismal regular-season record of 0-8-2 in the summer league of the Greater Portland Industrial Hockey League (GPIHL) in Portland, Maine, the Icemen had an uphill climb in the postseason.

That didn’t matter. The team rattled off four straight wins to take home the 30+ Division title in 2015.

“We were all joking about it before the playoffs started, saying like, ‘I guess we didn’t win a game all season, we might as well just win out in the playoffs,’” Icemen center James Theberge said.

“After the first game was done and we took out one of the top teams, we kind of joked about it but were serious at the same time, and it just kind of happened.”

It helped that the Icemen were at full strength for the postseason and could play up to their potential.

“We kind of had some short numbers in the middle of the season,” Icemen right wing Will Hallett said. “Summertime everyone’s out doing stuff, and we grabbed a couple of our guys that came back. We started playing hard and turned it around.”

The Icemen are comprised of guys mostly in their middle 30s. There’s been a core group of about five players who are original members and play every season.

“Lately, we’ve been changing up team members and stuff. We’ve got a core group of guys, but just added close friends,” said the 32-year-old Hallett, who has been on the team for six years. “Now it’s more of a family dynamic. ... We all kind of have the same attitude. It’s always a positive vibe. It’s always a good time.”

The Icemen were established seven years ago and have had success winning championships in both the summer and winter leagues. It never gets old for the guys when they win division titles. The victorious team is awarded a real-size replica of the Stanley Cup, so players can hoist the cup and skate around with it on the ice just like their NHL counterparts.

There are two big reasons for the Icemen’s success, the players say. One is that the Icemen have strong players, and the other is that they have good chemistry.

“There’s a lot of skill on our team,” said Theberge, 30, who is in his third year with the Icemen. “I’d say a lot of the teams in the league are more dump and chase and bang bodies with the bigger guys, but we’re one of the smaller teams. We’re more of a finesse team.”

The Icemen tend to rely on their potent offense to keep them in games.

“Definitely not dump and chase out of us,” Hallett said. “We’re carry the puck in, and we really like to set up a play. We like to pass the puck around and have a pretty goal. We don’t do a lot of screen and shoot from the point; we like the pretty goals.”

The guys never take their play too seriously and know they are lucky to get out on the ice together once a week.

“I think what unites us all is we like to play fair hockey, and we all like to try hard and win games,” Hallett said. “But at the same time, we’re not going to be out there slashing and checking and getting mad if things don’t go our way. We’re just going to put our heads down and use skill to win games.”

“We’re just a good group of guys,” said Theberge, who played collegiately at Lyndon State College. “Everybody looks forward to coming to the rink every week and going out and having a good skate.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.