HERSHEY, PA — The Hershey Bears are going to Calder Cup Finals for a second straight year and it’s thanks to an unheralded signing they made over the offseason.
Vienna, VA native Garrett Roe, a self-admitted Washington Capitals fan growing up, scored 7:38 into overtime on a broken play, giving the Bears a thrilling 3-2 win in front of 10,520 faithful at Giant Center.
Hershey will play the Coachella Valley Firebirds in a rematch of last year’s championship series. Game 1 is on Friday at Giant Center.
At age 36, Roe is playing in his first AHL postseason and has tallied 10 points (6g, 4a) in 11 games after being a scratch for the Bears’ first three contests.
“It was the end of our power play,” Roe said recalling the goal. “I don’t really know. We had kind of mismatched units going there at the end. Someone shot a puck — I don’t know who it is, so I’ll give them credit later on. But just hit a defenseman in front and found a little hole there. And [Bogdan Trineyev] was with me in front of me, kind of boxed out and [I] just put it on the glove side and found a way in.”
Bears defenseman Logan Day was that special someone who threw the biscuit at the net, but he didn’t remember the play quite as fondly.
“I threw an absolute muffin and luckily it bounced right onto his stick,” Day said smiling. “I mean, that guy is 87 years old so he’s played a couple hockey games and right place, right time for him and he buried it.”
The goal may have been the most important point of the Bears’ season, but Roe’s focus soon shifted away from the ice. He thought of not only his family watching from the stands, but of his mother Julie, who passed away last summer. Roe wears no. 65 in honor of Julie’s June 5 birthday and battled back tears while dedicating the moment to her postgame.
“It’s my mom,” he told reporters. “I feel like she had a helping hand in this somehow. I saw a cardinal the other day and just feel like that was her.
“My mom would have been thrilled to go through this with us, this whole ride. So it’s just cool to share those memories with — my brother’s here tonight. His wife, his kid, my kids. So that’s the part of life that’s just more than hockey sometimes, you know?
“Hockey’s obviously something, but life is more than that. And after Game 6, obviously with the disappointment, I woke up the next day and I imagine 20 of the guys on our team woke up just pissed off and things like that. But I had two kids yelling ‘Daddy, Daddy.’ So just gives you a gentle reminder of how fragile the hockey is and how much life means to me.”
The Bears previously honored Julie during their annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night in November.
No matter who you root for, when it comes to #HockeyFightsCancer, we’re all in this fight together. 💜 pic.twitter.com/bW8mEAxaGu
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 12, 2023
Roe opted to return to the US after her death, signing with the Bears after spending a decade overseas playing in the ICE Hockey League, Deutsche Eishockey Liga, Swedish Hockey League, and the Swiss National League. He was even a US Olympian during that stretch in 2018. Roe began his professional career in the AHL playing for the Adirondack Phantoms. Those Phantoms teams missed the playoffs both in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
Six weeks after he watched from afar as the Bears started the playoffs without him, Roe’s goal saved his team’s season.
When Bears head coach Todd Nelson was asked if that was how he drew up the winning play at the bench, he replied, “Not really. Not really. Took about five years off my life – this series.”
The Game 7 victory came after the Bears lost three consecutive games to the Cleveland Monsters and seemed to be bordering on a historic collapse. Nelson admitted that his first emotion when saw the puck cross the goal line was relief.
“Our team broke a lot of records this year,” Nelson said. “I didn’t want to be part of a staff that were up 3-0 in a series and lose four games in a row. It was really scary when you go into overtime. It was a relief.”
Then, he joked, “After that I got smothered by my assistant coaches, so I couldn’t really enjoy it.”
Roe admitted he blacked out during the goal celebration, and remembered “nothing.”
“I mean obviously, I’m a little claustrophobic, too, so guys start to pile on, trying to get out of there,” Roe said smiling. “But it’s just nice — these guys went through it last year with Game 7 overtime winner and I can’t imagine what they felt like. But just for all the guys we’ve been battling, it just felt good. And with the family here, it’s an awesome feeling.”
Hunter Shepard, the Bears’ victorious goaltender after making 42 saves, wasn’t even sure Roe was the overtime hero.
“Honestly, I had to ask him,” Shepard said. “I thought he scored, but I had to ask him when we were taking the picture. I was like, ‘You scored, right?’ Because I was so excited. I’m pretty sure Mac came down and I jumped into Mac. But I don’t know. That’s like the one time, games like that, where I feel like my blood pressure gets up. Yeah, it’s good to stay even-keeled so that’s the one time where you kind of really let it go. It’s really fun.”
Roe admitted that the Bears were especially motivated to win after Jake Christiansen’s taunt in Game 6. The Monsters’ rearguard scored the overtime game-winning goal and then did the Bears’ ROAR celly at their bench. The Bears put the taunt in their Game 7 hype video.
“I just feel like something with the Hockey Gods, when 23 did that celebration in our rink after overtime last game, I think it kind of sent a message to us and you don’t want to do that,” Roe said. “It pissed us off. It really did. It’s just, hockey’s a sport of respect and tradition. I don’t want to make too big of a deal out of it, but it felt good to get that one back. [Mike Vecchione] came in here and he said it’s up to us to do something about it. And we did something about it.”
Matt Strome went a step further, finding Christiansen on the ice after Roe scored and then did the ROAR celebration at him.
Shouldn’t have poked the Bear w/ that Game 6 celebration. Strome let them know! pic.twitter.com/J5IZ1lvPHd
— Caleb Young (@CoachCYoung) June 13, 2024
Roe was already a hometown hero to many in the DC hockey community for everything he and his family have done for the sport. Now, he has a goal that will live on forever. And up above, Julie is cheering him on.
Garrett Roe’s OTGWG
