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The Portland Pirates are the American Hockey League affiliate of the Washington Capitals. They play in Portland, Maine, at the Cumberland County Civic Center. They were founded in 1993, a year after the Maine Mariners folded, and after the Baltimore Skipjacks decided to relocate to Maine.
The team colors are red, black, silver and white and the logo is a cartoonish pirate with a hockey stick.
Their first season proved to be their most successful one, as they won the Calder Cup with a 43-27-10 record. Their next season they had 104 points, but were upset in the 1st round of the playoffs. In the 1995-96 season they again reached the Calder Cup Finals despite a subpar record of 32-34-10, but lost to the Rochester Americans.
Since then, it has been a roller coaster ride for the Pirates. Despite an excellent 100 point season, they were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in 1999-2000.
For the first four seasons, they were coached by current Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz. They played host to the AHL All-Star Classic in 2003, and there are talks of building a new civic center in Portland to help keep the Pirates in town.
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