EVERETT — Given the way the Everett Silvertips have played this season — occupying the U.S. Division lead for much of the season and putting together an 11-game streak without a regulation loss — qualifying for the playoffs might have seemed like a formality.

Just don’t suggest it quite that way to head coach Kevin Constantine.

“That’s step one and that’s very important to us,” Constantine said Monday as his team prepared for tonight’s showdown with Portland. “There’s no foregone conclusion when you start the year that you’re going to be in the playoffs. You gotta work for that and we’ve worked hard.”

The Silvertips (36-22-4-3, 79 points) saw their division lead eclipsed by surging Seattle (40-23-3-0, 83 points) last weekend. Yet Everett owes its closest rival a bit of thanks as the Thunderbirds’ 4-0 win over Tri-City Sunday means the Silvertips are back in the playoffs for the 13th time in their 13 seasons.

Everett has never missed the playoffs, and don’t be swayed by the fact that eight of the 10 Western Conference teams qualify. Among U.S. Division teams only Tri-City, which last failed to qualify in 2002-03, has a streak that long. The Americans’ current stretch is in jeopardy this season as they are four points back of Spokane for the final playoff spot.

The Tips haven’t always clinched a spot so soon. Overage alternate captain Carson Stadnyk remembers his rookie season in 2012-13 when the Tips fired coach Mark Ferner midseason and reached the playoffs as the No. 8 seed under general manager/interim head coach Garry Davidson. Constantine was hired by Davidson following that season for his second go-around with the team.

“Times have changed for sure, especially here,” Stadnyk said. “It has been a whirlwind. There are a few of us here that have had KC for three years now and we all know what we’re doing. We know his system and we’ve bought into his system pretty good and from that we’re doing a good job.”

Stadnyk is the last remaining Silvertip from Everett’s 2010 bantam draft class. Linemate Dawson Leedahl, the only holdover from the 2011 class and a fellow Saskatoon native, has been another important cog in Everett’s renaissance under Constantine.

“We definitely don’t ever want to be the team that doesn’t make it,” Leedahl said. “I was part of the rebuilding and still part of it now, so it’s pretty cool.”

You throw in overage defenseman Cole MacDonald and those are the only three players who remain from that trying 2012-13 campaign. In their first season under Constantine in 2013-14 the Tips finished tied with Seattle for second place in points, but took the third playoff slot because the T-Birds had two more wins. Then came last year’s banner-raising season.

The Tips are still chasing the U.S. Division crown, but face an uphill climb with the Thunderbirds now four points ahead. The two teams meet just once more this season though Everett does have a game in hand.

“We’re proud so we care where we end up,” Constantine said the final standings. “Of course you can’t chew up all your energy worrying about that. You gotta get your energy for the next shift.”

Everett is in the midst of a difficult stretch. The Tips have lost five of their last six, although just two of those defeats came in regulation. The slate remains difficult with two more games each against Portland and Victoria, and single contests against Tri-City, Spokane and Seattle.

Then it’s back to the postseason yet again.

“It’s been a huge (range) of emotions for us,” Stadnyk said. “We experienced from the worst to the best, and it’s been pretty cool to feel that.”

Notes

Leedahl, who has been out with a broken hand since Everett’s 4-1 win at Seattle on Feb. 6 fully participated in Monday’s practice and said he is “planning on playing (tonight).” … The Winterhawks (33-28-4-0, 70 points) have beaten the Tips five times in eight meetings this season including a 3-2 verdict in the Rose City on Feb. 12… Dominic Turgeon (31 goals, 31 assists) and Rihards Bukarts (26 goals, 31 assists) are the top offensive performers for Portland. … Adin Hill (31-25-3-0, 2.94 goals against average, .918 save percentage) is the Winterhawks’ top netminder.

For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.