It’s safe to say 2023 was a banner year for the Hershey Bears. They got back to the top of the mountain and have had an outstanding start to their championship defense this fall. Mike Vecchione’s goal in overtime in Game 7 ended a 13-year span since the Calder Cup last came to Hershey, the longest in the team’s history. As the calendar year ends, the Bears have plenty to be thankful about, but it’s not lost on anyone that they have the opportunity to roar for more in 2024.
Special Group
“We’re definitely happy with what we’ve accomplished so far,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said before the Christmas break. “I see the team is still growing, and there’s a lot of room for growth. We can’t be complacent…I think the guys are pushing each other right now, which is great. At the start of the year, I was concerned with a Calder Cup hangover. It didn’t happen. The guys that won last year have that hunger and thirst to go back to that situation. The new guys know how special it can be.”
“Teams like this don’t come around very often. We have a good hockey club, the guys get along great and mesh well. We have to take advantage of it.”
The last bit of that quote no doubt resonates with longtime fans of the Bears and draws comparisons to championship years of old. Back at the start of the team’s affiliation with the Washington Capitals, the Bears had a dynasty of sorts, appearing in the Calder Cup Finals four times in five years. Hershey captured the AHL’s prize three times in that span, including back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. A bevy of talent went through the Sweetest Place on Earth to get to Washington, eventually leading to the Capitals’ first Stanley Cup win in 2018. It was a unique period of success in Hershey that’s hard to replicate.
After the Bears were unable to threepeat in 2011, the era of the team’s dominance seemed to end. The team couldn’t get beyond the second round of the playoffs until a Cinderella run in 2016 ended in sweep to the Lake Erie Monsters. That era of success ended in 2017 when a potent group fell short in a furious battle with the Providence Bruins.
Staying the Course
Hershey continued its tradition of mixing top prospects from Washington with quality AHL talent. Under new head coach Spencer Carbery, the team had a resurgence in 2019. Quality additions like veteran forward Matt Moulson and talented scorers like Phil Maillet meshed with prospects like Garrett Pilon, Joe Snively, and Beck Malenstyn. Then the pandemic scuttled the season and prematurely ended Hershey’s first season at the upper echelon of the AHL. It impacted the following season mightily, one in which the Bears finished atop the league standings but couldn’t compete for the Calder Cup.
The 2021-22 season saw another promising team cut down by injuries and recalls. Hershey had to hire a new head coach once more as Scott Allen was promoted to the Capitals, the latest in a long line of Bears bench bosses to receive that call. The stars would align for Hershey’s Vice President of Hockey Operations, Bryan Helmer, to hire a familiar face: Todd Nelson, who came into town preaching what many wanted to hear.
“Fans,” Nelson said during his first media availability as Hershey’s head coach. “Not just one fan, three or four different occasions it’s been mentioned that it’s been a while since a Cup came home to Hershey. I think winning is a form of development, we want to have a winning culture here. I think we owe it to the people of Hershey who support the Hershey Bears to have a winning club.”
Battling Bears
The team had its fair share of ups and downs in their first season under Nelson. Some important battles were won by the team’s depth down the stretch, leading to the Bears securing second place in the Atlantic Division. The first round bye that came with that position led to a series with the Charlotte Checkers, a team the Bears struggled with in years past. There were many reasons the series could have gone south, including starting on the road for two games in a best-of-three, but the Bears proved their mettle early. They won both games on the road and took the series in four games to exorcise past demons to move on to the division finals.
It’s never easy to get past the Atlantic Division Finals, particularly with the Bears facing off with the upstart Hartford Wolf Pack. Hartford had a major surge in the late stages of the season, upstaging the Springfield Thunderbirds and the division-winning Providence Bruins. A late comeback in Game One capped by Henrik Borgstrom’s electric overtime-winner set the stage for a series sweep by the Bears, yet another sign of this team’s resiliency and character.
Beasts of the East
The biggest challenge yet was no doubt the Rochester Americans, who smacked the Bears on the mouth in Game One in a 5-1 loss. Hunter Shepard bounced back in goal with a shutout the next game, sending the Chocolate and White to Rochester with a split. Nelson’s group turned a raucous hostile crowd into their own advantage, winning all three games on the road to punch their ticket to the Calder Cup Finals. Their opponent? The brand-new Coachella Valley Firebirds, who the Bears flew across the country to face for the right to hoist the AHL’s ultimate prize.
It wasn’t a happy trip out west, as the Bears lost both games by a collective score of 9-0. It appeared to be another summer much like 2016, with the Firebirds even going as far as sending their fans home saying “see you next season”. Not many anticipated there’d be more hockey at Acrisure Arena – except for Todd Nelson and his team. The Bears took Game Three in overtime courtesy of Riley Sutter’s winner, took a narrow win in Game Four, and a 1-0 overtime win in Game Five. Garrett Pilon etched his name into Hershey lore with the tally before a packed house at Giant Center.
Sweeter By The Dozen
A loss in Game Six set the stage for a seventh and decisive game in the desert. It appeared to be lights out for the Bears, trailing 2-0 and facing a shorthanded breakaway. Instead of a dagger, a save by Shepard lifted Hershey’s bench to keep them in it. “Remember that one if the Bears have any chance of coming back,” as broadcaster Zack Fisch said at the time. It’d be huge as Connor McMichael scored on the power play to cut the lead to one. Hendrix Lapierre tied the game at two on a deflection from Vincent Iorio’s shot at the point and set the stage for a winner-take-all overtime.
At 1:17 in the morning back on the East Coast, 16:19 of overtime, Borgstrom shook loose of the defense in the corner, centering the puck for either Mike Vecchione or Ethen Frank. Both players got their stick on the puck in the mad scramble that ensued, with Borgstrom retrieving it and flicking a quick centering pass to Vecchione. All in one motion, the puck was in the top corner, and Vecchione had ditched helmet, gloves, and stick to do the team’s signature celebration: the Roar, which he had started early in the season.
The goal stands alone in the history of the Hershey Bears and the AHL itself as the only sudden-death goal of its kind to win the Calder Cup. Hershey won its 12th championship, with the win truly sweeter by the dozen as immortalized by Fisch’s call.
Defending the Title
Just over one week later, the Bears were back at it with building their championship defense squad. Many members of the winning team had already departed, and it was time to build upon the core that remained. Free agent acquisitions like Pierrick Dubé, Chase Priskie, Jimmy Huntington, and Alex Limoges gave the team a new scoring dimension. Rookies like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ryan Hofer, Bogdan Trineyev, and Clay Stevenson have played huge roles in the team’s success in defending their title in 2023.
Hershey got out to its best start in franchise history through 30 games, posting a record of 24-6-0-0 leading up to the Christmas break. The mark includes a nine-game winning streak and results in the Bears sitting atop the standings as 2023 draws to a close. Nelson’s remarks about the special group in Hershey bring back memories of years past and a reminder that this is a special era of the Bears. Losing some time hurts, no doubt, but the present is brighter than ever. Vecchione’s goal and the team’s accomplishments have this group roaring for even more in 2024.
