HERSHEY, PA — For 17 seconds, the Hershey Bears appeared headed back to the Calder Cup Finals for a second straight year. Herndon, VA native Joe Snively scored with 50 seconds remaining in the third period of Game 6, giving the Bears a 2-1 lead as the team held a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The moment was sheer pandemonium. Snively was mobbed along the corner boards by his teammates as Bears fans screamed and jumped up and down in the stands, thinking the Bears had punched their ticket to the championship series.
“The roof just about blew off the place,” the team observed on social media.
“Yeah, that one felt good,” Snively admitted after the game. “That was pretty thrilling.”
Once Snively skated out from the goal hug, the normally even-keel forward did a huge ROAR celebration as he approached Hershey’s bench for fist bumps — the same goal celly that Mike Vecchione invented early last season and has helped bring the last two Bears’ teams closer together. Hershey’s mantra for the 2024 posteseason even plays off of the celly and Vecchione’s Game 7 overtime goal in the Calder Cup Finals last year: REPEAT THE ROAR.
But those good vibes were quickly replaced by anguish… and of the extreme kind. On the Monsters’ very next shift, Brendan Gaunce redirected a shot past Hunter Shepard to tie the game and force overtime.
Then, in sudden death, Monsters defenseman Jake Christiansen won the game after flicking a fadeaway point shot along the side boards past a screened Shepard.
The tally was massive for the Monsters. After falling behind 3-0 in the series, Cleveland won three consecutive elimination games against the league’s best regular-season team to even the series and give themselves exactly one shot to advance to the Calder Cup Finals.
Christiansen was understandably excited about his goal, but the way he celebrated caught the eye of the Bears. The 24-year-old rearguard did his own sarcastic version of the ROAR, turning to the Bears bench with a ridiculous face and taunting the losing team.
With nothing actually won, Christiansen gave bulletin board material to a team already mad about their recent performances—Vecchione was none too pleased at Christiansen’s choice of taunt.
“It’s the overtime winner, he skates right through the neutral zone, that was it,” he told RMNB postgame. “Seen that before from a couple other teams. A little disrespectful in our barn but it’s up to us to go out there and do something about it.”
Wednesday’s deciding matchup will mark the first Conference Finals Game 7 played in Hershey in 18 years. Per the AHL, Cleveland is attempting to be the fourth team in AHL history to win a series after trailing 3-0. The Bears are looking to be the first back-to-back champions in the AHL since the 2009 and 2010 Hershey teams that produced Capitals’ Stanley Cup champions like John Carlson, Braden Holtby, and Jay Beagle.
“It’s really disappointing, losing it,” Snively admitted of Game 6, “but take some time with it, feel a little angry, and then you’ve just got to prepare for the next game.”
“Obviously a tough one to swallow, but we just got to move forward and keep that belief in the locker room that we can get things done,” Vecchione said.
