Two years ago for the Hershey Bears, overtime of Game 7 in the Calder Cup Finals ended and sent the team celebrating late into the night in Palm Desert, Calif. They had just put away the Coachella Valley Firebirds for their AHL-record 12th Calder Cup championship.
Some 11 months ago, Matt Strome’s Game 6 overtime strike again put away the Firebirds, this time at Giant Center. Make it 13 Calder Cup banners.
Wednesday night?
Hershey’s bid to become the first team since 1962 to win three consecutive Calder Cup championships came to a quiet, abrupt, and altogether through end. They fell quietly to the Charlotte Checkers in Game 3 of the best-of-five Atlantic Division Finals, losing 6-3 and giving the Checkers a series sweep.
Hershey had built a 2-0 lead on goals from Bogdan Trineyev and Mike Vecchione before Charlotte had seen enough. The Checkers overwhelmed Hershey, ripping off three goals in a 7:24 span and outshooting the hosts in the second period, 20-2. Two more third-period goals spaced 2:26 apart broke open the game to 5-2. Hershey managed to close to 5-3 before Rasmus Asplund’s empty-netter with 1:40 to play sent Bears fans streaming toward the Giant Center exits.
By game’s end, a largely empty Giant Center had fallen very quiet. This time, it was the visiting Checkers celebrating a series win, not Hershey. Following their handshakes with the Checkers, the Bears gathered at center ice to salute their fans, who returned the gesture with cheers. Veteran forward Garrett Roe, a key part of last year’s championship pursuit, took third-star honors. At 37 years old, he is retiring, and Wednesday brought his career to a close. He got a hearty salute from teammates and fans alike.
Charlotte now looked like the hungry, close-it-out team that the Bears had been in 2023 and 2024. Maybe it was the strain of playing a combined 256 games – 40 of them Calder Cup Playoff contests – since October 2022, though not all of the personnel had been there throughout. Or the pressure of being a target for an opponent’s best game each night. Or maybe they simply did not execute enough or enough of the time. Free agency took a toll last summer as did promotions to the Washington Capitals. So did in-season departures that depleted Hershey’s blue-line depth significantly.
And then that was it. No team has won three consecutive Calder Cup titles since Springfield did so between 1960-62, and that will remain so until at least 2027. Hershey also came close with titles in 2009 and 2010. So did Springfield in 1990 and 1991, though that was with two different NHL affiliations. Beyond those efforts, it’s necessary to go back nearly a half-century to back-to-back champions in the Nova Scotia Voyageurs (1976, 1977) and the Maine Mariners (1978, 1979).
Left to sort through it all was head coach Todd Nelson, who had raised concerns about several of the issues that finished off the Bears on Wednesday. Turnovers, an inability to get a puck deep, a long shift, trouble on home ice, they all came together, and the Checkers continued to let up on Hershey.
“Everything you saw all year kind of came to a head [Wednesday],” Nelson said. “It reared its ugly head. I give Charlotte a lot of credit. They’re a hard team to play against. They pressure you all over the ice. But I felt that they executed their game plan better than we did. That’s the bottom line.”
Nelson also recounted an earlier conversation that he had had. “I’ve been fortunate to have some success, right?” he said. “For me, winning is a drug, and I want more and more of it…But it has been a lot of hockey with these guys. I’m not making excuses, but we just didn’t have enough to get it done.”
Captain Aaron Ness also attempted to capture these three playoff runs. In all, the Bears went 141-53-12-10 (.704) in regular-season play these past three seasons, plus 31-15 in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Last season’s .771 points percentage just missed out on toppling the AHL record of .775 set by the 1992-93 Binghamton Rangers. It is an effort that will go down as one of the best three-season stretches in league history.
“[My message is] how hard it is to really win,” said Ness, a member of both Calder Cup teams as well as a Cup finalist in 2016 with the Bears. “What we’ve done…we’ve done some pretty incredible things, set a lot of pretty incredible records, and I think in a couple of days it would be easier to see those things when you wind down, and it’s not the emotional ride that it is right now after you lose a series.”
However, significant change now awaits the Bears come July 1. Roe is retiring. Goaltender Hunter Shepard, the backbone of the Bears’ two championships, will be an unrestricted free agent as will top defenseman Chase Priskie, who is sure to attract significant attention. Also eligible to become unrestricted free agents are forwards Pierrick Dubé, Alex Limoges, Luke Philp, Spencer Smallman, and Riley Sutter. Of players on AHL contracts, Brad Hunt, Jake Massie, and Mike Vecchione are among the unsigned for next season.
Trineyev, Hershey’s leading playoff scorer with 5-2-7 in eight games, could compete for a job in Washington. So could Ivan Miroshnichenko (3-2-5 in eight playoff games). Hendrix Lapierre, who won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs last year, had an exceptionally quiet return to the postseason with just three assists in his eight-game run this spring. Where he fits into Washington’s long-term plans remains to be seen.
And then there is Nelson, perhaps the biggest question of all in Hershey. He has five Calder Cup titles to his name, three of them as a head coach. His name continues to emerge to some degree in rumors for NHL head-coaching vacancies. As of now, the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Seattle Kraken all have those openings. Nelson develops, wins, and also possesses six seasons of experience as an NHL assistant coach as well as a half-season as interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. It’s difficult to find a gap on that resume. That said, if Nelson does leave, the Capitals would be swarmed with resumes for a crack at the Hershey job. It’s one of the premier head-coaching posts, if not the top one, in the AHL.
But those decisions still need time to unfold. For now, the Bears will gather for break-up day at Giant Center on Thursday, pack up, and scatter for the summer. There will be no team championship celebration at Giant Center.
The ice will come out much earlier this year, and there will be a new Calder Cup champion.
How To Watch The AHL On FloHockey
The AHL is streaming on FloHockey and the FloSports app. Live games, replays, highlights and breaking news also will be available on both platforms. Sign up today to watch every single game of the Calder Cup Playoffs live and on demand.
NHL Prospect Coverage On FloHockey
The best, and most complete, coverage of the NHL minor league hockey and NHL Draft is found on FloHockey. Don’t miss the latest new prospect guides, rankings and more from Chris Peters and the FloHockey staff.
Watch the AHL, ECHL, USHL, And More On FloHockey
FloHockey is the streaming home to some of the best hockey leagues in North America, including the ECHL and more. Check out the broadcast schedule to watch more hockey.
