The Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup championship on Wednesday night in an overtime and historic classic, defeating the Coachella Valley Firebirds 3-2.
Mike Vecchione scored the winner with 3:41 remaining in the first overtime to end the inaugural season for the Firebirds. Coachella Valley held a 2-0 lead midway through the second period before Hershey scored three unanswered.
The only previous Calder Cup Finals Game 7 to go to overtime was in 1953, when Bob Chrystal scored the only goal to give the Cleveland Barons a 1-0 Cup-clinching victory over the Pittsburgh Hornets.
Before a sold-out Acricure Arena with fans screaming in unison "We want the Cup," neither team scored in the third period and through the first 10 minutes of overtime as the game remained tied 2-2.
Much of the third period was played with the Acrisure crowd on their feet. Hershey outshot Coachella Valley 9-4 in the final period but Coachella Valley has a 34-28 shot advantage in the game.
Hershey scored consecutive goals in a three-minute span in the second period to rally from an early 2-0 deficit and force the 2-2 tie after 40 minutes.
Hendrix Lapierre tied the game at 2-2 with 2:51 to play in the second period. Hershey had cut the Firebirds lead to 2-1 with 6:08 remaining in the second period when Connor McMichael scored on a power play. It was his sixth playoff goal.
Before fans could settle into their seats in the second period, the Firebirds lead went to 2-0 over the Hershey Bears when Max McCormick scored his 14th playoff goal with 19:36 remaining. Kole Lind and Ryker Evans assisted.
In the second period, Coachella Valley outshot Hershey 13-7 and now holds a 30-19 advantage after 40 minutes.
A frenetic and tense pace dominated the first period with the Coachella Valley Firebirds taking a 1-0 lead into the locker room. The Firebirds are 10-0 this postseason when leading at the first intermission.
Ryker Evans got the Firebirds on the scoreboard early and out to a 1-0 lead with 15:19 remaining on a rebound shot. The goal was his fifth of the playoffs. Andrew Poturalski and Jesper Froden had the assists.
Coachella Valley held a 17-12 advantage in shots on goal in the first period.
“It’s going to be one of the biggest games of our lives,” Firebirds goalie Joey Daccord said. “And for most of us, we may never play a game bigger than this one."
Stay with this blog all day for news, nuggets and developments before, during and after the game.
Calder Cup Finals: 1st overtime
Mike Vecchione scored the winner with 3:41 remaining in the first overtime to end the inaugural season for the Firebirds. Coachella Valley held a 2-0 lead midway through the second period before Hershey scored three unanswered.
Calder Cup Finals: Third period
Much of the third period was played with the Acrisure crowd on their feet. Hershey outshot Coachella Valley 9-4 in the final period but Coachella Valley has a 34-28 shot advantage in the game.
Calder Cup Finals: Second period
Twenty minutes remain to decide a Calder Cup champion as the Firebirds and Hershey Bears ended the second period in a 2-2 tie.
Hershey scored consecutive goals in a three-minute span in the second period to rally from an early 2-0 deficit.
Hendrix Lapierre tied the game at 2-2 with 2:51 to play in the second period. Hershey had cut the Firebirds lead to 2-1 with 6:08 remaining in the second period when Connor McMichael scored on a power play. It was his sixth playoff goal.
Before fans could settle into their seats in the second period, the Firebirds extended their lead to 2-0 over the Hershey Bears when Max McCormick scored his 14th playoff goal with 19:36 remaining. Kole Lind and Ryker Evans assisted.
In the second period, Coachella Valley outshot Hershey 13-7 and now holds a 30-19 advantage after 40 minutes.
Calder Cup Finals: First period
A frenetic and tense pace dominated the first period with the Coachella Valley Firebirds taking a 1-0 lead into the locker room. The Firebirds are 10-0 this postseason when leading at the first intermission.
Ryker Evans got the Firebirds on the scoreboard early and out to a 1-0 lead with 15:19 remaining on a rebound shot. The goal was his fifth of the playoffs. Andrew Poturalski and Jesper Froden had the assists.
Coachella Valley held a 17-12 advantage in shots on goal in the first period.
Calder Cup Finals: Firebirds or Bears will hoist the Cup
Are you not entertained?
Remarkable, unbelievable, stunning, you just have to empty the thesaurus when trying to describe this debut season for the Coachella Valley Firebirds. It has come down to a final game. Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals against the Hershey Bears is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Acrisure Arena.
One of the two teams will be skating around with the much-coveted American Hockey League champion's cup on the Acrisure ice by the end of the night. Will it be the conclusion that Firebirds fans have been dreaming of, or an agonizing nightmare that falls one step short of the ultimate goal?
The game will be played in the Coachella Valley because the Firebirds had a better regular-season record than the Bears, so this is a perfect example of the importance of the regular season. In the three home games against Hershey, the Firebirds have outscored the visitors by a lopsided total of 14-2.
However, Game 7s have a history of being close and difficult to predict. It should be a tense, fun spectacle, the likes of which desert sports fans couldn't have imagined a year ago at this time.
Calder Cup Finals: The Poturalski triple
If the Firebirds win Game 7, it will continue a remarkable run for Coachella Valley star Andrew Poturalski, the likes of which may never have been accomplished in the AHL, NHL or any professional sport.
If the Firebirds win, Poturalski will have been on the last three Calder Cup champions for three different franchises. When the Charlotte Checkers won the Cup in 2019, Poturalski was named the playoff MVP. The Cup was not handed out in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID-19. He was on the Chicago Wolves in 2022 when they won the Calder Cup. And now he's in a position to do it again.
Imagine someone winning three straight Super Bowls or three straight World Series for three different teams. Winning three straight titles on one team is rare enough, but the Poturalski triple is almost impossible. For example, Ken Norton Jr. is the only player ever to win three consecutive Super Bowls. He won two in a row for the Cowboys and one for the 49ers, so no one in the NFL has ever done it. It's a hard thing to look up, but if it's happened before we'd love to know about it.
Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns to play preseason game at Acrisure Arena this fall
Calder Cup Finals: Who was Calder and how much does the Cup weigh?
The Calder Cup is named after Frank Calder, the first president of the National Hockey League. It's been given out since 1937. The Cup is made of sterling silver with a Brazilian mahogany base. It's 24 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds.
Unlike the Stanley Cup which keeps adding to its base to accommodate all of its winners, the Calder Cup has two tiers to its base which include commemorative plaques representing the most recent 20 champions. When a new champion is crowned, they are added to the trophy and the oldest one is retired and joins a display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Calder Cup Finals: Game 7 history
This will be the 12th time the Calder Cup has been decided in a Game 7, but only the second in the last 18 years (Toronto over Texas in 2018) and only the fifth time in the last 60 years. In those 11 previous instances, the home team has won Game 7 and the Cup eight times.
Calder Cup Finals: Home cookin' at Acrisure
It's been well documented that the home team has won all six games of this Calder Cup, but maybe no team has a bigger home-road disparity than the Firebirds in these playoffs. The numbers are quite astounding.
Consider, in the three Calder Cup games at Acrisure, the Firebirds have outscored the Bears 14-2. In three games at Hershey, the Bears outscored the Firebirds 9-6.
The Firebirds are 12-3 at Acrisure Arena this postseason, including seven consecutive wins, but are 3-7 on the road. But this may be the wildest stat. Two of the three home losses were 1-0 shutouts. So that means in home games during this playoff run when the Firebirds score at least one goal, they are 12-1.
Calder Cup: Coaches battle
Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson, who is already one of three people in history to win the Calder Cup as a player (Portland, 1994), as an assistant coach (Chicago, 2008) and a head coach (Grand Rapids, 2017), is looking to add a fourth Calder Cup championship to his mantle. In 2008, his Chicago Wolves defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, whose assistant coach was current Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma.
Bylsma is bidding to become the ninth head coach ever to win both the Calder Cup and Stanley Cup (Pittsburgh, 2009).
Calder Cup Finals: Special teams factor
Hershey has gone 9-1 in the playoffs when converting for a power-play goal, and 3-0 when converting with the man advantage on the road. When failing to do so, Hershey is 4-5 overall, and 3-3 on the road. In the series with Coachella Valley, the Bears are 2-0 when scoring with the man advantage, and 1-3 when failing to convert.
