The Hershey Bears are hours away from playing the biggest game of their season.
After taking the first three matchups of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Monsters, the Bears have lost three straight, including an excruciating defeat in Game 6.
Joe Snively gave the Bears a 2-1 lead with less than a minute to go, but the Monsters tied 17 seconds later forcing overtime. There, Jake Christiansen was Cleveland’s hero, scoring in sudden death and then taunting the Bears’ bench with their own ROAR celebration.
Wednesday, Hershey released a hype video narrated by former team captain and current TV analyst, Garrett Mitchell. The vid features never-before-seen video from the team’s playoff run and other highlights from the franchise’s past.
“60 minutes, that’s all it takes now,” Mitchell says. “60 minutes of heart-stopping, arena-shaking hockey. We’ve had our setbacks. No one would say this path would be easy. We don’t hang 12 banners from the rafters playing easy hockey. History takes sacrifice, hard work, and fight. Fight for every inch, every shot, and every save. That’s Hershey Bears hockey and that takes everyone to get it done. They’ll try to hurt us, taunt us, and intimidate us. In the end, you look out for your brother next to you and you leave it all on the ice. 60 minutes is all it takes now. Are. You ready?”
The video finishes with quotes from Henrik Rybinski, Joe Snively, and Mike Vecchione.
“That’s hockey, that’s what we play for right?” Rybinki says. “Those moments, and we’ve just got to go out there and believe.”
“Both teams in the same position,” Snively adds. “One game. 60 minutes of hockey.”
“We’ve just got to move forward and keep that belief in the locker room and get this done,” Vecchione says.
The video concludes with Vecchione commenting on Christiansen’s taunt.
“It’s a little disrespectful in our barn, but it’s up to us to go out there and do something about it.”
Bring. On. Game. 7. the Bears wrote on X.
Well, I’m ready to run through a wall. How about you?
