Bears Face Firebirds in Final

Charlotte. Hartford. Rochester. And now, Coachella Valley.

After conquering the AHL's Eastern Conference in the middle of this spring, the Hershey Bears now tend to the tallest of tasks, taking down the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the Calder Cup Final. This spring marks Hershey's 24th trip to the Calder Cup Final and it is seeking its' 12th Cup title, adding to what is already a record spanning the AHL's history of more than eight decades.

After earning a first-round bye, the Bears bounced Charlotte in best-of-five set, winning in four games. Hershey then ousted Hartford in three straight games before beating Rochester in a six-game, best-of-seven set. The Bears punched their ticket to the Calder Cup Final this past Friday when they eked out a 1-0 win over the Americans in Rochester, riding a second-period Shane Gersich goal and another splendid netminding performance from Hunter Shepard, who notched his second shutout and 10th victory of the playoffs in Friday's clinching contest.

"I feel pretty relieved right now, actually," said Hershey coach Todd Nelson in the wake of the clinching win in Rochester. "It was such a tight game. Rochester played such a strong game; they were coming at us. Once again, Hunter Shepard had to be perfect tonight. You've got to give their coaching staff and their players credit, they battled right to the wire."

To this point of the postseason, the Bears own a dominant 10-3 overall record, and they are a perfect 6-0 on the road. They won all three road games in a tough Rochester barn to earn their trip to Final, where they will face the upstart Coachella Valley club, which just completed its first season in the AHL. Coachella Valley is the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken.

"Going on the road in Charlotte was no picnic, either," says Nelson of his team's road success. "I think our guys just got focused. "When you're at home, it's nice to be around family and friends and the fans and everything. Believe me, we love being at home and playing. But sometimes there are other distractions. I'm not saying that's the case, but our guys came into this game really focused tonight and you could see they had a lot of determination. And I'm glad that we're trending in this direction, depending on who we play. If we play Coachella, we're going to have to win on the road. It's a good trait to have. We want to establish ourselves at home now."

Game 1 is Thursday night in Coachella Valley and Game 2 follows on Saturday. The series then shifts back to Hershey for the next two - and potentially three - games; the Bears host Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Thursday, June 15. If Game 5 is necessary, it will also be played in Hershey on June 17. If the final two games are needed, they will be played in Coachella Valley on June 19 and June 21. The games will be televised on NBC Sports Washington.

Shepard has been the backbone of the Bears throughout this spring's run. He owns a 10-3 record to go along with a 1.85 GAA and a .929 save pct. A stud in net in his final three seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the 27-year-old Shepard entered this season with just a dozen games worth of AHL experience. But as the season wore on, he earned the trust of the coaching staff, and with that trust came more starting assignments. In the team's postseason run, he has started all 13 games to date, finishing a dozen of them.

"It's pretty crazy," he admitted after the Game 6 victory in Rochester. "Considering I was in the East Coast League pretty much all of last year, it's pretty crazy. I wasn't even the starting goalie when I came here this year, so it's been pretty wild journey so far."

One of the hallmarks of a strong netminder that instills confidence in the squad in front of him is the ability to bounce back from the occasional bad beat. Shepard has shown that throughout the playoffs; he has yet to lose consecutive starts, and that has helped Hershey gain and retain control early in each of its three postseason series this spring.

Shepard had a rugged outing in Game 1 against Rochester, a 5-1 loss at Hershey in which he departed midway through the game after yielding four goals on 16 shots. Not to worry, kid. Shepard rebounded with a shutout in Game 2, the first of three straight wins that gave the Bears a 3-1 chokehold on the series. After not living up to his own standards in a Game 5 loss in Hershey, Shepard was again at the top of his craft in Game 6, stopping all 24 shots he faced, and stymying the Amerks on a lengthy 5-on-3 power play that could have altered the course of the game and the series.

Each of Shepard's two postseason shutouts has followed a loss. In his three playoff starts following losses, Shepard has forged a 3-0 record with a 0.67 GAA and a gaudy .974 save pct. He has permitted two or fewer goals against in 11 of his 13 postseason starts.

"Tonight was a little like Game 2; I felt like I needed to respond," said Shepard after the clincher in Rochester. "I let in some bad goals the other night [in Game 5].

"It's exciting for sure. This was our goal to get there at the beginning of the year, and they don't come around every day, the chance to play for a championship. So it's very exciting."

Shepard is calm under fire and is capable of handling a heavy workload as well as a high volume of shots. He's also a leader. During his days at UMD, Shepard was a co-captain as a senior, the first UMD goaltender to serve as a captain since 1976. He also set an NCAA record with the Bulldogs when he started his 105th consecutive game midway through that senior season.

When Shepard led the Bulldogs to a second straight Frozen Four title in 2019, he became the first netminder to achieve the feat in a half century. Hershey has had contributions from throughout its lineup to reach the Calder Cup Final, but it all starts in net with Shepard.

"He is unbelievable," says Bryan Helmer, Bears' vice president of hockey operations. "What a response. He is our backbone of the team right now and he is playing really well. And guys are supporting him, guys are doing the right things, so everything is working out well right now. And we're going to the finals!"

They are indeed. In addition to Shepard's stalwart play and the team's perfect road record, the Bears have been getting offensive and defensive contributions from throughout their lineup. Gersich's Game 6 game-winner is a great example; he went more than three weeks without playing before stepping back into the lineup and skating in four of the six games in the Rochester series.

After Beck Malenstyn put a shot from the left wing off the left pad of Rochester netminder Malcolm Subban, Gersich was right where he needed to be to bag the rebound. The lone goal of the game came on a play started by blueliner Gabriel Carlson, and Shepard made sure it stood up.

"It's unbelievable," says Gersich of his series-winning strike. "This is my fifth year here and this is the first time we've made it there. It feels so good. I'm kind of at a loss for words here. But it will sink in over the next few days and we'll get ready to go [out west] and be ready."

"We've talked about depth all year," says Nelson. "Gersh brings a lot of energy and we knew this building was going to be wild and all that stuff, and he has been around. We wanted more of a veteran presence in the lineup, and it was a great goal. Beck Malenstyn is coming down the wing, he throws a far pad rebound, and Gersh is there to bang it in. Both goaltenders were playing so well tonight that I had a feeling that might be the one that separates us, and it was. It's huge when you get contributions from everybody up and down the lineup."

The Bears have had that, and then some. Missing injured key contributors Bobby Nardella and Vincent Iorio on the blueline and Mike Sgarbossa up front, Hershey has gotten goals from 18 different skaters in its 13 playoff games to date, and 21 different players have recorded at least a point. Bears blueliners have combined for eight goals and 24 points in the postseason.

"We've just got to keep playing our game," says Malenstyn. "We're comfortable wherever we are. We know our system and we know our style. We stick to it and we know it's effective, so we're happy to take it to the Final."

Hershey will have its hands full in the Final; Coachella Valley boasts each of the AHL's top playoff scorers while Hershey's top scorer - Aliaksei Protas with a dozen points (five goals, seven assists) - is tied for ninth. The Firebirds knocked off Tucson, Colorado, Calgary and Milwaukee to reach the Final; Coachella Valley is 12-7 to this point of the postseason.

The 2023 Calder Cup Final match-up features the AHL's oldest team against its newest team, and it marks the first time the Final has played out over the Pacific and Eastern time zones as well. The last time a Hershey squad played a game in the state of California was a Feb. 7, 1968 game against the San Diego Gulls, a team that featured the legendary Hockey Hall of Famer and trailblazer Willie O'Ree, who netted 21 goals for the Gulls that season. Former Caps' general manager Max McNab was behind the bench for San Diego in '67-68.

On Tuesday, the Bears practiced at Giant Center before flying out to California for Thursday's series opener, and Hershey is back in the Calder Cup Final for the first time since 2016.

"You never want your season to end," says Shepard. "I've been up here the last couple of years, and I think if they would have had their whole team last year - and even the year before that, if there were playoffs [that year] - I think either one of those teams probably would have had a chance to go on a deep run.

"There are some older guys that probably came here to try and play for a championship, and I think with Nellie and the coaching staff and [associate goaltending coach] Juha [Wehtola], everyone has just kind of meshed. It's a pretty tight knit group for not all of us being together for a long time."

Not every season culminates with a chance for a championship, and now the Bears are just four wins away from that distinction. The emphasis is on seizing the opportunity and getting it done against an opponent they've never faced before.

"It's one of those things that I think those guys already know in there," says Helmer. "Nellie has told them this might be the last time that we're all together, so we've got the chance to win a Calder Cup together. Let's go do it, and they're going to be ready."

"I'm going to enjoy it for a couple of days, that's for sure," said Nelson after Friday's win in Rochester. "But then it's back to work. We'll see what happens in the next series, and in the preparation for a series, that's where the coaches really have to roll up their sleeves and get ready. We haven't seen either one of these teams all year. So we're going to have to get a lot of information and make sure that we're ready and prepared."