The start of the postseason will look a lot like the end of the regular season for the Aberdeen Wings.

After facing St. Cloud in the final four games of the season, Aberdeen will now take on the same squad in a best-of-five playoff series starting tonight at the Odde Ice Center.

“I think both staffs know each other’s teams pretty well,” said Wings coach Scott Langer, “so it’s probably going to be quite the chess match.”

One might think that would cut down on scouting since the two sides have seen quite a bit of each other recently, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

“I think you still have to scout them and see if there is anything that was missed over the weekend,” Langer said.

While teams don’t change many things this late in the season, Aberdeen’s fortunes have altered drastically in the past few weeks. The Wings went from being outside of the playoffs looking in to grabbing home-ice advantage in the first round. A big part of that push came from sweeping four straight games against the Norsemen, including two in St. Cloud.

“We had to really up our game and then polish it up, and make sure we weren’t making any huge mistakes,” Langer said. “We found a way to win those two in St. Cloud. They were both great hockey games. You couldn’t ask for better up and down action between two teams. We were just fortunate enough to come out on top.”

The scene then shifted to the Odde Ice Center where the Wings added two more victories.

“Obviously, when you get home you have two huge crowds behind you. The fans have just been great here,” Langer said. “It’s a huge advantage to be able to come out of the gate and have those guys behind us.”

Langer said there have been two key factors to his team’s late-season surge: getting healthier and having older players step up and provide solid leadership.

“We started to score some goals and make some plays, which we had a hard time doing for a good amount of time,” Langer said. “Then the leadership stepped up. You have to look at the games that Owen DuBois, Patrick O’Connell, Kyle Contessa, all those 20-year-olds, had during the course of that time.”

The Wings were able to leapfrog St. Cloud on the final night of the regular season. Now, they will attempt to bounce the Norsemen out of the playoffs.

Langer knows that when the puck drops at 7:15 this evening, the past will mean nothing.

“Playoff hockey is way different. It’s a brand new season. Things tighten up dramatically,” Langer said. “I think (St. Cloud) is going to come into this thing thinking you know what, brand new season, fresh out of the gates, it’s any man’s game and they’re right.”

Aberdeen is definitely heading into the playoffs on a high note and will look to use its home-ice advantage to set the tone for the postseason.

Langer said his squad has had a good week of preparation and is ready to start the playoff voyage.

“Hopefully, we continue that good solid hockey we’ve been playing, find a way to move into the second round eventually,” Langer said, “but we’re going to take this thing one period at a time. It’s a process.”