The Hershey Bears have repeated the roar!
Hershey completed their second consecutive championship series victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds with a 5-4 win in Game 6 on Monday night. The Bears are now 13-time Calder Cup champions and have repeated as champions for the third time in franchise history.
The Cup victory is the first for the Bears at home since 2010 and they did it in front of a record-setting crowd in the 100th-ever AHL playoff game inside Giant Center. Pierrick Dubé led the charge with a hat trick effort, Hendrix Lapierre added to his league-leading point tally, and Matt Strome scored the overtime winner.
Ryan Winterton continued to be an absolute thorn in Hershey’s side as he scored his fifth goal in six games against the Bears in this series. The game’s opening marker came just 1:37 into the first period.
Winterton had just one goal in his previous 12 playoff games before this championship series.
Dubé responded with a power-play goal 4:14 after Winterton struck. The French-born winger potted his fifth goal via assists from Lapierre and Joe Snively.
Lapierre did himself one better with just 36 seconds remaining in the first frame. The Quebec-born centerman deflected home a Chase Priskie shot to give the Bears a 2-1 lead.
Hershey took that 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Marian Studenic continued the trend of early-period goals for the Firebirds. He tied the game just 1:51 into the second period.
Winterton…again. The rookie forward pounced on a loose puck in front of Shepard to give Coachella Valley their lead back.
Dubé struck for his second of the game to tie the game with 6:08 left in the second period. Alex Limoges created the goal with a fantastic play behind the Firebirds net and set up Dubé in the low slot.
The 23-year-old winger has 34 goals this season combining his regular season and playoff totals.
Dubé capitalized on a bad Firebirds turnover and finished off his hat trick. Wow.
First playoff hat trick by a Bears player since Casey Wellman in 2015. Only four previous Hershey hat tricks in the Calder Cup Finals with Alexandre Giroux potting one in 2009.
Cale Fleury found a loose puck in the slot and beat Shepard high over the glove to tie the game with 2:55 left in regulation.
Just 1:06 into overtime, Matt Strome scores the Cup-winning goal.
The championship marks the third for Todd Nelson as head coach and second with the Bears. Nelson became the 12th head coach in league history to win multiple Calder Cups last season. He is only the third head coach in league history to win Cups with different teams.
Hershey held the Firebirds to under 10 shots in all three regulation periods. Ethen Frank finished tied for the most playoff goals in the AHL this season with 10.
ROAR = REPEATED pic.twitter.com/DXeQojF74J
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) June 25, 2024
Coachella Valley lost back-to-back championship series against the Bears and will now go into the offseason looking for a new coaching staff. Dan Bylsma will be the Seattle Kraken’s bench boss next year and is expected to bring some of his AHL staff with him.
Here are Hershey’s lines from the win:
Projected lineup for Game 6! 📝
Catch the broadcast:
📺 @fox43.2 (Antenna TV), @MonSportsNet (DC region)
🖥️ https://t.co/HaxQBmLCRZ
📻 @FroggyValley, @foxsports1460am, @WOYK1350, @CapitalsRadio pic.twitter.com/GhA2uh6UN7— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) June 24, 2024
