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CORALVILLE - This was not backing in. No way, no how.

The Iowa Heartlanders didn’t win their game Sunday afternoon at Xtream Arena, falling in overtime to Wichita, 3-2.

But that standings point and a loss by Central Division mate Bloomington meant the Heartlanders have clinched a spot in the ECHL playoffs. It’s official.

For the first time in the franchise’s four years.

You grind and grind in the regular season to get to this point. Though you get there without a victory ... who cares?

“For a couple of us who have been here since day one, it’s a little bit of feeling overjoyed, I guess,” said Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon. “A lot of hard work in the making. But it’s like I told the guys now the chase for the Kelly Cup starts. You love to get into the playoffs. It’s the best part of the year. We’re playing meaningful hockey this time of the year.”

“This is something that the team has been looking for,” said Iowa captain Yuki Miura, the only player who has been with the franchise all four years. “It’s not easy to get to the playoffs. This year we built a culture, built (good) habits, and everything came together.”

Damon has done enormous good work in his four years in the Corridor: the first as an assistant coach and these last three as head coach. It’s not easy to attract players to an expansion franchise, one that hasn’t been especially successful.

The Heartlanders were 29-33-9-1 in their inaugural season of 2021-22, then went 22-36-13-1 the following season. It was 27-37-6-2 last season.

But this team has played cohesively, despite the constant player transactions that come with this league, and the way Damon has wanted it to play. That’s a simple north-south game, with pace and defensive responsibility.

“Everyone works very, very hard, and that’s why we are successful,” Miura said. “I’m just proud of the guys.”

“It stems from the captain and the leaders on this team,” Damon said. “They’re unbelievable people. I can’t say enough about Yuki, Will Calverley, Adam Goodsir, Dakota Raabe, Nico Blachman, those guys. They set the tone, they bring their work ethic every day in practice. The best compliment a coach can get about his team is when another coach comes up and says ‘You guys are the hardest-working group out there.’ That’s a testament to the guys. They show up every day wanting to get one-percent better. You do that over the course of the year, and you will get better. The proof’s in the pudding.”

Iowa has been gold in one-goal games, stacking up standings points, even when it doesn’t win them, such as Sunday. It rallied from a 2-0 hole after two periods, getting third-period goals from Ryan Miotto and newcomer Ryan McGuire.

Peter Bates scored on a 2-on-0 in the three-on-three OT to win it for Wichita. The Heartlanders are 33-21-7-4 for 77 points, pretty much locked into third place in the division, with seven regular-season games remaining.

Toledo looks real good for the division championship, with Fort Wayne probably the second-place team and the Heartlanders’ first-round opponent in mid-April in a best-of-7 series. By the way, the Kelly Cup just happened to be at Xtream Arena on Sunday.

The ECHL sends it around to different teams during the season to display.

“I’ve said from day one. I want to win the Kelly Cup,” Damon said. “It took some time to build it (here). A long time to build it the right way.”