Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
It was a close call, but the Hershey Bears’ bid to become the first team since 1962 to win three consecutive Calder Cup titles continues.
The feisty Lehigh Valley Phantoms put a scare into the two-time defending champion Bears in the teams’ best-of-five Atlantic Division semifinal series. Hershey twice had to fight off elimination before sending the Phantoms into the offseason with a 4-2 victory in Sunday’s Game 5 at Giant Center.
“I was concerned,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said of what he saw in the Phantoms even before the series opened, “and rightly so.”
Those concerns only grew after back-to-back losses left the Bears in a 2-1 series hole. On the brink Friday night at PPL Center, though, the Bears pulled out a 6-4 win, and then finally put away the Phantoms on Sunday. The escape required significant lineup moves, goaltending changes and, most of all, an ability to see the series through to the final horn.
Hunter Shepard took the first three starts of the series and played well. But Nelson turned to Clay Stevenson for Game 4, a gutsy hunch based on his past success against Lehigh Valley. It was the first time since the Bears began this run in April 2023 that a playoff start went to a goaltender other than Shepard.
Nelson then returned to Shepard for Game 5, feeling comfortable with his ability to handle big-game pressure. That move paid off, too, as Shepard made 19 saves and shut down several prime chances late in the third period after the Phantoms had cut the Hershey lead to 3-2.
Center Mike Sgarbossa, the team’s longest-tenured player, returned from a late-season injury to play the first three games of the series but went scoreless. Nelson opted to sit the veteran for Games 4 and 5. Garrett Roe was inserted into the lineup, as was three-time AHL All-Star defenseman Brad Hunt. The revamped mix worked, as what had been a scattered, disconnected group quickly showed a more cohesive, collective game.
Some significant problem-solving skills came into play as well after Lehigh Valley burned the Bears for three shorthanded goals in their two wins. The Hershey power play rallied with three goals in Game 4. And while the Bears went scoreless in five chances Sunday, the team did show a knack for drawing Lehigh Valley into penalty trouble. After the Phantoms’ first goal 2:08 into the third period of Game 5, Hershey drew three minors – including a full two-minute 5-on-3 – burning valuable time off the clock to help short-circuit a comeback bid.
“Keep level-headed,” forward Spencer Smallman said of Hershey’s game plan. “Stay cool. Whatever it takes.”
All of it worked. And the hard-nosed, surly, heavy Phantoms may well have been exactly what the Bears needed to get themselves into the playoff mood. After a lengthy break following their regular-season finale, the Bears were pulled into a physical, close-checking, chippy confrontation with their Pennsylvania rival.
It was playoff hockey, and it felt like it. Hershey has now won a league-record nine consecutive Calder Cup Playoff series.
“I want to give credit where credit is due,” Nelson said of the Phantoms, who were just the third team in those nine series to push Hershey to the brink of elimination. “Their guys never quit. They’re well-coached. They did a great job. We consider ourselves a pretty good hockey team, but that was a battle.”
The series also revived the resilience and sense of purpose that the Bears have shown the last two postseasons. Seventeen different Hershey skaters found the scoresheet in the series, led by All-Star forward Alex Limoges with six points. Just as they did in 2023 and 2024, contributions came from up and down the lineup.
“It speaks volumes of the character,” Nelson said. “It speaks volumes of the leadership in the room, the experience the guys have been through. Our guys got through. They found that one gear I was looking for.”
Roe, who had six goals in 12 playoff games last year, hustled to a loose puck that set up Riley Sutter’s second-period game-winning goal in Game 5. The play of Roe, who will retire after this, his 14th pro season, exemplifies what will be necessary if the Bears are to become the AHL’s first three-peat team in 63 years.
“The ultimate teammate,” Smallman said of Roe. “You just look in his eyes on the way to the ice, and you know he’s ready to battle, and I think that drags a lot of guys into the fight, too.”
Charlotte awaits in the best-of-five Atlantic Division Finals, and the Bears’ path will not ease up. The Checkers went five games with the Providence Bruins in their division semifinal, capped by a dominant Game 5 performance on Sunday in which they allowed just eight shots on goal in a 5-2 win.
The Charlotte penalty kill efficiency was a league-best 86.6 percent in the regular season, and they topped the AHL with 16 shorthanded goals. They then allowed only two power-play goals in 19 situations against Providence while scoring pair of shorthanded strikes.
The Bears will travel south on Wednesday and begin to prepare for Game 1 in Charlotte on Friday night. It’s another obstacle, but one the Bears will meet head-on.
As Nelson said of facing the Checkers before leaving Sunday’s post-game press conference, “Put your seat belts on.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
