A Monster Comeback

I don't think anyone would be surprised that the Hershey Bears would be called the AHL's best team this season and possibly ever with the marks they set this season. The Bears were simply unstoppable in the regular season in posting a 53-14-0-5 record while not losing back-to-back games in regulation over the entire 2023-24 campaign. The postseason, however, is a different animal as any team will tell you, and these Bears looked like they were cruising until this week when the Monsters woke up in the Eastern Conference Final.

Hershey held a 3-0 series lead over the Cleveland Monsters until Thursday when Cleveland rallied for a 3-2 win at home at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. Hershey looked to regroup in Game Five on Saturday, but a 1-0 lead in the first period was erased by five unanswered goals as the Monsters again defended home ice with a 5-1 win to push the series back to Hershey at a 3-2 count. With Hershey 29-7-0 on the season at home, it seemed like the Bears just needed to get to the Giant Center for things to finish up successfully.

With the game tied 1-1 late in the third period on Monday, it appeared that the Bears were set to defend their title.
Hershey Bears winger Joe Snively scores with 50 seconds left in the third period to put Hershey up 2-1 over Cleveland as that late goal seemed like it would be enough to send the Bears back to the Calder Cup Final for the second-straight year. The defending champion Bears just needed to kill the next 50 seconds, and they'd be playing for their 13th Calder Cup in franchise history.

The Cleveland Monsters, however, had other ideas.
With six skaters on the ice, Cleveland's Brendan Gaunce found room past Hershey's Hunter Shepard with 33 seconds remaining - 17 seconds after Snively's goal - to tie the game at 2-2 and keep Cleveland's season going! Originally credited to Josh Dunne, it was Gaunce's centering pass that appears to have gone off the Hershey defender on all fours in front of Shepard, and the puck came to rest inside the net. The Monsters still had life as overtime loomed!

As we saw in the Kelly Cup Final, any shot may be the game-winner in overtime so could the Bears finally finish off the Monsters or would Cleveland's late tally push them to an overtime win to push the series to a Game Seven in Hershey on Wednesday?

Remember when I said above that any shot may be a game-winner?
In what looked like a harmless shot, defenceman Jake Christiansen's first goal of the playoffs was a big one as that shot got through traffic and eluded Hunter Shepard to find twine as the Cleveland Monsters took Game Six by a 3-2 score over the Hershey Bears! If it seemed like an improbable long shot, the Monsters had forced a Game Seven just five days after trailing in the series by a 3-0 count!

For those wondering, Cleveland's win puts them in some exclusive company as they became just the fifth team in AHL history to send a series to a Game 7 after losing the first three games. The other teams to accomplish this feat include:

• 1960 - Rochester Americans defeat the Cleveland Barons in Round One.
• 1989 - Adirondack Red Wings defeat the Hershey Bears in the Southern Division Final.
• 2011 - Houston Aeros defeat the Hamilton Bulldogs in the Western Conference Final.
• 2013 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeat the Providence Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final.

That italicized series above? That's the only series where a team rallied to erase a 3-0 deficit and lose the series. Hamilton rallied to tie the series, but Houston's Jon DiSalvatore scored with 1:13 remaining to push Houston to the 4-3 win in Game Seven to win the series. Clearly, the Monsters are looking to follow the leads of Rochester, Adirondack, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but Hershey will likely do everything in its power to prevent it from becoming the first AHL franchise to post 3-0 series leads and lose the series twice.

Game Seven will be played tomorrow night, and you can catch the game on AHL TV (subscription) and on the NHL Network if that channel is available to you. It will be an epic night for one of these two teams as both the Cleveland Monsters and the Hershey Bears look to book their tickets to the Calder Cup Final!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!