INSTANT REACTION: Bears Avoid Cleveland Comeback, Heading Back to the Calder Cup Finals
It is no more than a five minute drive from the GIANT Center parking lot to the entrance of Hersheypark. Inside the park, you’ll find plenty of roller coasters. That is what this series was. A roller coaster. Every single game in Hershey went to overtime, including the first two games of the series that the Bears won. They won game three, too. Then, chaos.
Cleveland got a game back in game four. Then another in game five. Then … another in a devastating game six.
Eventually, it got to a game seven, and then a game seven sudden death overtime, and that’s when the Bears finally put a stop to the madness. Garrett Roe got a rebound and put it right back in the top right corner of the net. Unlike the almost series-winner in game six, this goal was a sure-thing. The play was over, the game was over, the series was over, and the Hershey Bears are heading back to the Calder Cup final.
It’s only fitting that it was veteran Garrett Roe with the finish. Even his teammates will admit, Alex Limoges saying “He’s older, he knows a lot.” on the live broadcast postgame.
It’ll be the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the Calder Cup finals, a team that made some waves earlier in the week, practicing at Hersheypark Arena’s ice and attending some of the latter games of the Eastern Conference Finals, including head coach Dan Bylsma, who’s been a head coach in the NHL and will be after the Firebirds season is over. He will take over as the Seattle Kraken head coach after the season, the Firebirds affiliate.
“They were hear three days ago waiting for us,” said Bears coach Todd Nelson postgame. “It’ll be an interesting matchup.”
The roller coaster of the Eastern Conference Finals is over, and now, as soon as you leave the ride, you enter a new one.
It’s not much turnaround time until the Bears face the Firebirds in the Calder Cup Finals. The series starts on Friday night at 7 from Hershey, then again on Sunday at 7 again in Hershey before the series heads to the desert.
Trent Vogelhuber and the Monsters season comes to a close after the comeback from 3-0 in the series.
