For the second year in a row, there will be June hockey at Giant Center. The Hershey Bears are returning to the Eastern Conference Final, completing their second straight sweep of the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday in a 4-1 final score. Garrett Roe took the spotlight with a three-point night (two goals, one assist) and Matt Strome tallied his first Calder Cup Playoff goal. On the same night, the Bears were confirmed to meet with the Cleveland Monsters in a best-of-seven series starting on Thursday, May 30 at Giant Center.
Hershey fell behind after one period of play. It was set to be a battle on enemy ice before a hostile crowd. The Bears pulled even with Roe’s first of the night, a perfect deflection of a shot from Hardy Haman Aktell. Haman Aktell continues to have great plays and better vision, putting the puck on a platter for him to deflect the shot past Dylan Garand.
Roe tallied another one just a couple minutes later. Ivan Miroshnichenko made a nifty outlet pass to Roe, who moved in on a two-on-one rush with Chase Priskie. Roe’s pass across hit Priskie in the skate, but Roe continued to move into the middle. The puck spiked off of Priskie’s skate, and Roe whipped a backhand shot past Garand to put the Bears in front.
After the first period, the Bears collared the Wolf Pack. Hartford only had seven shots on goal in the second period, and only three pucks made it to Hunter Shepard in the final stanza. With the Bears seeking for an insurance goal, it’d come off the stick of Hershey’s most unsung hero. A power play was coming to its conclusion, and the Bears were preparing to defend with the fourth line jumping over the boards. Henrik Rybinski took the puck behind the net and centered it perfectly to Matt Strome, who buried his first-ever Calder Cup Playoff goal in a massive goal.
Hershey tallied an empty net goal to seal the deal. Aaron Ness blocked a big shot, with the puck landing flat for Roe to shovel to Mike Vecchione. Mr. Game 7 tallied his first goal of this postseason to seal the deal in Hershey’s sweep of Hartford.
“Hartford wasn’t as big and physical as Lehigh (Valley),” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “The Lehigh Valley team we beat, that’s a good hockey team. They got a lot of guys back from Philadelphia and we had to really compete hard to win that series. It’s unfortunate for Hartford, they have some guys up with the Rangers right now and we lucked out a little bit with that.”
On the same day, the other series in the Eastern Conference came to its conclusion. The Cleveland Monsters took down the Syracuse Crunch in a wild finish. It sets the stage for a rematch of the 2016 Calder Cup Finals when the Monsters were in the Western Conference and tabbed as the Lake Erie Monsters. Back in those days, the Bears were swept in the Finals, the only time between 2010 and 2023 that the Chocolate and White have made the final round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Although much has changed for both teams since then, there is one holdover from that year’s playoff battle: defenseman Aaron Ness, who as strong on the blue line then as he is today. Hershey won all four games of the regular season series, with two games at Giant Center on October 15 and December 9 and two games on the road on March 22 and 23. Those matchups may be ones to be thrown out of the window in some ways, as both teams were significantly hampered by personnel losses. Cleveland was icing a team comprised largely of ECHL talent at the time of the most recent matchups. There’s something to be said about learning game plans, but this time the two teams will be fully loaded for this matchup.
June hockey returns to Giant Center for the second straight year. The Bears are hosting the first two games on May 30 and June 1, a Thursday and Saturday, respectively. The series will shift to Cleveland for the next three games, with June 4 (Tuesday) and June 6 (Thursday) the dates for Games Three and Four. If necessary, a fifth game would take place on June 8 (Saturday) and the series would shift back to Hershey if needed for two other games. The Bears would host Game Six on June 10 (Monday) and a seventh game would take place on Wednesday, June 12 (Wednesday), should it be required.
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