Bears Release Schedule for Back-to-Back Champions
Press Release: After hoisting the Calder Cup as league champions in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024, Hershey will take the ice this fall for its 87th season of AHL competition aiming to defend its league-leading 13th title and become just the second team in the league’s 89-season history to win the Calder Cup in three straight years.
The 2024-25 season gets underway for the Bears at GIANT Center versus the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. Hershey will commemorate its 2024 Calder Cup title with the raising of a 13th Calder Cup banner to the rafters at GIANT Center in a pre-game ceremony. All fans in attendance will receive a mini replica 2024 Calder Cup banner, presented by Highmark.
For the first time since 2006, the Bears will host the Chicago Wolves at GIANT Center, welcoming their lone Western Conference opponent on the schedule to Hershey for a pair of games on Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20. Hershey will also visit the Wolves for a pair of games in Rosemont, Illinois in March.
Saturday night home games will once again be a fixture of Hershey’s schedule, as the club is slated to host 14 total games on Saturday evenings. The club will also play home games on Sunday (12), with additional home games at night on Tuesday (2), Wednesday (4), and Friday (4).
The holiday season will see many opportunities for fans to enjoy a Bears game with their family. Hershey hosts its traditional Thanksgiving Eve game on Wednesday, Nov. 27 versus Laval at 7 p.m. The Bears will also play eight straight games in Chocolatetown from Dec. 14-Jan. 7, the club’s longest homestand of the season, matching a franchise record (Hershey previously played eight consecutive home games from Oct. 19-Nov. 9, 1985).
The busiest month of the calendar for the Chocolate and White occurs in March, as Hershey takes the ice 14 times. The club will endure a 10-game road trip – the longest stretch away from home in team history – from March 7-29 that sees the Bears visit Cleveland (2), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (2), Chicago (2), Springfield (1), Hartford (1), Bridgeport (1), and Utica (1), before finally returning home to face Utica on March 30. The Bears’ previous record of nine consecutive road games had occurred twice: (Feb. 8-25, 1959 and Feb. 27-March 14, 2008).
In total, the schedule features just two “three-in-threes,” in which the Bears will play three consecutive games in as many days.
Hershey will once again play all teams in the Eastern Conference during the 2024-25 campaign with games versus Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (12), Lehigh Valley (10), Charlotte (8), Bridgeport (6), Belleville (4), Cleveland (4), Hartford (4), Providence (4), Springfield (4), Syracuse (4), Laval (2), Rochester (2), Toronto (2), and Utica (2).
