HERSHEY, Pa. – There’s something special about every team that wins a championship in professional hockey. The format in the American Hockey League makes any would-be winner earn it. Typically, it takes 20 games beyond the regular season to win it all. Summertime looks different for a team that misses the postseason compared to the one that hoists the Calder Cup after two more months of hockey.
The Hershey Bears lifted the team’s 12th Calder Cup on June 23 after Mike Vecchione scored the league’s first sudden-death Game 7 overtime win in its history. Though, the seeds of a championship team had been planted long ago with the 2022-23 edition of the team bearing fruit at long last.
Sweet Dreams
June 11, 2016.
The Bears were on the opposite end of things as the then Lake Erie Monsters lifted the Calder Cup after dispatching Hershey in a four-game sweep. There was plenty of room for regret on the ice as the Chocolate and White were close in some of those games, but their Cinderella run (which included a dramatic Game 7 overtime win over the Penguins in the second round) came to a conclusion in an overtime loss.
It was the last time the Bears played hockey into the month of June for seven long years. Defenseman Aaron Ness was on the ice for Lake Erie’s decisive goal, and seven years later, he’d lift the Calder Cup. Ness is one of under 50 people to play 300 or more career games in Hershey.
Fast forward to the 2019-20 season. The Bears were looking for more after a rebirth the year prior with young players like Beck Malenstyn, Garrett Pilon, and Shane Gersich finding their way in the AHL during their sophomore seasons. Hershey had some incredible veteran talent like Matt Moulson, the former NHL scorer alongside teammate Phil Maillet.
Those players as well as the likes of Mike Sgarbossa spearheaded the new Bears. Those players dotted the score sheet on March 8, 2020, as a late comeback fell short in a shootout loss. It’d ultimately be the last game of that year due to the global pandemic.
Bumps in the Road
The Bears would ice solid teams for the next two years, winning the title of top regular season team in 2020-21 with the unfortunate caveat that the Calder Cup would not be awarded. The next year, injuries and a limited roster took the teeth out of a solid team offensively that was unable to get out of the play-in round of the postseason.
Even worse, the Bears were without a head coach with the promotion of Scott Allen to the Washington Capitals, but it ultimately turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“We’re All in This Game to Win”
Enter Todd Nelson.
The ties between him and the Bears were strong; he played the 1995-96 season at Hersheypark Arena. Nelson was a gifted scorer from the blue line with career numbers during his time in Hershey. He coached Bears Vice President of Hockey Operations Bryan Helmer for a pair of seasons in Oklahoma City from 2010-2012. Their close bond led to a perfect fit to fill Hershey’s coaching vacancy in the late summer of 2022. When he arrived for training camp, Nelson was reminded by the passionate fanbase of what Hershey is known for: winning.
“Fans. Not just one fan, three or four different occasions it was mentioned that it had been a long time since the Cup came home to Hershey,” Nelson said at the beginning of training camp. “We’re all in this game to win, obviously we have to develop people for Washington, but I think winning is a form of development. We want to have a winning culture here, we owe it to the people of Hershey that support the Hershey Bears to have a winning club.”
The organization seemed set to make a run at a deep playoff run. Offseason signings like Sam Anas, who was a former AHL scoring champion, signaled the Bears’ intent to win. The Bears had highly regarded prospects Hendrix Lapierre and Vincent Iorio to give them a youthful edge. Strong veterans like Ness and Gabriel Carlsson further balanced the group and added a lot to the lineup.
It’d be tough in the competitive Atlantic Division to win, but the Bears had the makings of a special group.
Roaring For More
Nelson’s confidence in his team never wavered, even though some of the team struggled to gel early on. The Bears struggled out of the gate but it wouldn’t take long for them to practice what Nelson preached. The month of November showed what the team was capable of with 11 wins in 13 games and saw the team evolve into one of the league’s best by the Christmas break as Hershey took over first place in the Atlantic Division by that time.
The Bears had their fair share of struggles in addition to a lot of success. One tough spell started when the team lost their signature event, the Teddy Bear Toss, in a shutout that resulted in stuffed animals hitting the ice at the final buzzer.
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise successful event that saw 67,309 stuffed animals donated to charity but was the start of a tough stretch for the Bears. The team fought illness and poor circumstances, like a bus breakdown during a trip to Utica standing out. Hershey got some important wins down the stretch to enter the playoffs on a high note. The team comfortably earned a bye in the first round as one of the Atlantic’s top two teams.
Defending the Den
Hershey had a tough task in the first round in facing the Charlotte Checkers. The Bears struggled with them at times in the regular season in addition to a playoff loss in 2019 but had an opportunity to exorcise those demons in this series.
The team did what seemed to be impossible in those old days by winning both games in Charlotte, outscoring the Checkers by a collective 10-3 count in the process. Things seemed dire after the Bears narrowly lost Game 3 and were down 2-0 in Game 4, but a remarkable comeback showed how resilient this team was to flip the script mid-game and take a 6-2 win to close out the series.
The next two series saw a pair of impressive wins. In a dire moment in Game 1 against the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Bears once again bounced back from a 0-2 hole to force overtime. Henrik Borgstrom, playing in his first career Calder Cup Playoff game, scored the winning goal from his strong spot on the right side to take the win. They never looked back, winning the next two games in convincing fashion to earn a date with the Rochester Americans.
Hershey took a punch on the chin in Game 1 but rebounded well to take a split to Rochester with a Hunter Shepard shutout in the second game. They quieted a capacity crowd three times at Blue Cross Arena to defeat the Amerks in six games. It was just the second time in their storied history to defeat the Amerks in a playoff series. The win set the stage for a date with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the newest team in the league. The Bears were heading to California for a date with destiny.
“We’re Going to Be Okay”
The series got underway on June 8, but not as Hershey hoped. The Bears lost the first two games blanked by a 9-0 collective score. It was an unimaginable outcome that put Hershey in a brutal situation coming home for the next three games.
As dire as the situation seemed at the time, Nelson still had full confidence in his team. In the untold stories of the Calder Cup playoffs run told by Bears commentator Zack Fisch, Nelson was calm and collected.
“You know what Shark (Fisch’s nickname), it’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.”
It’s easy to say in hindsight, but it was far from it at the moment. The Bears returned home across the continental United States and prepared for Game 3 back at Giant Center.
Despite Ethen Frank’s first playoff goal sparking them and leading to more, the game went to overtime. The Bears survived the extra frame courtesy of Hunter Shepard’s strong play and needed a hero. Dependable forward Riley Sutter stepped up and swatted a rebound home to give the Bears a crucial win, 5-4.
The victory marked Hershey’s first win in the final round since 2010.
With that, a comeback was sparked.
The Bears followed that game up with their only regulation win of the final round. Hershey earned a gutsy 3-2 decision that featured a total team effort defensively to protect their lead.
They threw themselves in the shooting lanes the Firebirds were able to find previously in the first two games. Securing the win seemed to shift the series in the Bears’ favor at that point as the two clubs were guaranteed to once again head out west for at least one more game.
One More Time
The team had work to do in Game 5. One team would take that flight back across the country needing just one more win to lift the Calder Cup. If the roof of the Giant Center was still standing after two raucous games, it wouldn’t be for much longer.
The fifth game needed extra time at a scoreless deadlock. On the tail end of a power play, unsung hero defenseman Logan Day made an incredible play to knock down a clearing attempt with his hand, getting the puck to Mason Morelli. He’d pass it off and drive to the net to provide a perfect screen as he did so often.
Pilon ended the home portion of the 2022-23 season with an unforgettable game-winning snipe. The Bears were on the brink of their 12th championship.
After a disappointing loss in Game 6 on the road, the Hershey Bears had one more game as a family. Prior to Game 7, Nelson and his wife set up a barbeque to give the team one more night together. He had done the same as a form of bonding before the season got underway months prior.
It was the final time spent with each other with one more game for all the marbles. Nelson wanted his team loose and to enjoy the moment with each other, a key difference from the sixth game.
“It was awesome yesterday,” Nelson said. “We all got together and it made me realize that hockey is just a game. What it’s all about is family, seeing all the players’ wives, girlfriends, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, really good people. Now I know why this team is so special because these people are so great because of how their parents raised them.”
Sweeter By the Dozen
It was fitting, in a way, that the Bears fell behind by a 2-0 count in dire straits. Shepard had, once again, come up huge with a breakaway save to keep his team in it. All three of Hershey’s goals that followed were team efforts by everyone on the ice, starting with a power play goal for Connor McMichael.
Lapierre deflected a shot from Iorio to even the score and send it to extra time. It was the first time in AHL history that a game would be decided by sudden death overtime in Game 7.
There’s plenty to dissect in the sequence leading up to the goal, but another complete effort led to Vecchione burying a pass from Borgstrom, sending the team into a frenzy. Gloves and sticks littered the ice and minutes later, captain Dylan McIlrath lifted the Calder Cup.
This culminated in the first time the Bears won the title since 2010 and is the 12th Calder Cup in team history. The Bears had once again reached the top of the mountain with one of the wildest finishes in all of hockey.
“Feels great, it never gets old,” Nelson said. “To do it with this group is really special. I’m just going to take it all in and watch these guys enjoy each other. It’s such a tight group all year and I firmly believe that’s what got us over the hump tonight. It’s such a special group, we didn’t panic when we were down 2-0, and we kept getting stronger as the game went on.”
Keeping the Calder in Chocolate Town
The Bears have 12 championships and 24 appearances in the Calder Cup Finals. Maintaining that reputation means that Hershey will once again ice a strong team in the fall. The organization has worked hard days after the title to maintain its roster and bring in new talent.
It’s a tough legacy to live up to, but there’s a strong returning group of players that lead Hershey to the promised land again. The team has two back-to-back titles in its history and will look to add another one in the fall.
