Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
The Hershey Bears wore Target all season.
They feel it both mentally and physically. Not only were they the defending Calder Cup champions, they also went on to put together one of the best seasons in AHL history, finishing with the second-best regular season record ever and winning 53, the most by an AHL team in a 72-game season.
The Bears took care of Lehigh Valley and Hartford and went on a 3-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals before the pressure became too much. As the calendar turns to June, it looks like Hershey may have finally met their fate. The Cleveland Monsters gave them all they could handle, winning three straight games and pushing the Bears into overtime in Game 7.
They survived because Garrett RoeOT’s OT winner earned a return trip to the Calder Cup Finals, but the relentless Monsters put the Bears in seven penalty games.
Then the Coachella Valley Firebirds got a chance at redemption, the kind of chance that doesn’t always come around. Hershey had won the Calder Cup last season by defeating the Firebirds in overtime in Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals. All year the Firebirds have worked to reach that point again.
Entering the series with just one day off and losing three top defensemen to injuries, the Bears lost their opener to the Firebirds, were blown out in Game 3, and face a very real possibility of seeing their new cross-country rival that way. The Calder Cup that just eluded them last year.
But Hershey rallied, winning 3-2 in Game 4 and scoring a late goal. Jimmy Huntington earning another 3-2 win in Game 5. The Firebirds were on the brink of their first finish of the postseason, while the Bears were coming home one win away from the title.
“We have a lot of depth,” Roe said, “and we’re proud to use that. We are proud to be able to put four lines and feel comfortable against other teams.”
Back at the Giant Center, a standing-room-only crowd of 11,013 fans witnessed a tense, back-and-forth Game 6. Pierrick Dube scored a hat trick and Hershey took a 4-3 lead late in regulation, but another tying goal late in regulation sent the contest into overtime.
Matt Strome, a forward who had been healthy through the first nine games of the regular season, found himself almost alone with a loose puck that had come out of a scuffle. He entered the shot and passed through it Chris DriedgerLeft glove hand 1:06 into OT.
The Bears had survived again, and had their 13th Calder Cup.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said the forward Hendrix Lapierrehis 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 20 games earned him the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
It was also the Bears’ fifth title since joining the Washington Capitals in 2005. Todd Nelson he had his fifth Calder Cup, and third as a head coach. Bear vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmerwho helped build the list, matched Nelson with his fifth championship, including two as the Bears’ captain in back-to-back seasons in 2009 and 2010.
“This year we had a target on our back,” Nelson said following Game 6. “There was a lot of pressure this year to finish it and win the cup. We were expected to win, and it would be a crying shame if we didn’t finish the way we did.”
Mike Vecchionewho had an overtime goal to win the Game 7 Cup last year, knew they were getting the best of their opponents every night this season, and that helped bring the Bears’ locker room closer.
“Everyone is very close,” she said. “We are truly a band of brothers, and that starts [Nelson] up. You really care about the guy sitting next to you, and that’s why we’ve played so well all year.”
And it came down to Strome, who slipped to the fourth line in name only. In fact Nelson relied on them to shut down opposing top lines, win key possessions and steal momentum from opponents time and time again. Through the shutdown center Riley Sutter and the rookie Bogdan Trineev, three frustrated opponents until the last second of the season. This time it was Strome who got his moment as a hero.
There could be no more right way for the Bears to finish this season.
“Matt Strome has the clutch gene for life now,” Vecchione said. “I am very happy for him. He really deserved this place. You are the best. I’m proud of those guys.”
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has covered the American Hockey League for nearly two decades at outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM ! Sports, and most recently was the host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
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