Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author

The Hershey Bears are flying residence right now with two possibilities to make it back-to-back championship seasons.

A 3-2 win towards the Coachella Valley Firebirds final night time in Sport 5 of the Calder Cup Finals has given the Bears a 3-2 collection lead with Sport 6 forward of them Monday night time at Big Heart (7 ET, AHLTV), the place the groups cut up the primary two video games of the collection. If mandatory, Sport 7 can be Wednesday, additionally in Hershey.

Down two video games to 1 earlier within the week, the Bears took Video games 4 and 5 at Acrisure Enviornment, the place the Firebirds had been 7-0 this postseason.

Of the 9 occasions in AHL historical past {that a} group has gained consecutive Calder Cups, it’s been the Bears doing it twice, in 1958-59 and once more in 2009-10. It’s been a uncommon feat in latest a long time; solely Hershey and Springfield (1990-91) have captured back-to-back titles within the final 45 years.

“On any given night time, it’s a selected line or a pair gamers that step up,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson advised reporters after final night time’s 3-2 win.

On Thursday, it was the road of Ethen Frank, Hendrix Lapierre and Joe Snively. In Sport 5, it was the trio of Jimmy Huntington (two targets), Alex Limoges (two assists) and Pierrick Dubé (one help) coming by way of. With Hershey trailing 1-0, Huntington struck with 1.3 seconds to go within the first interval. Then he responded once more with 3:15 left in regulation, breaking a 2-2 sport and setting off his decidedly enthusiastic objective celebration.

“It’s simply…ardour,” stated Huntington, a fifth-year professional who reached the convention finals with Milwaukee in 2023. “I wish to win for these guys. I got here to Hershey to win a championship.”

In between Huntington’s two targets, Hardy Häman Aktell’s tally with 11:34 to go within the third interval erased the second Coachella Valley lead of the night time. With three regulars on the Hershey blue line out, Häman Aktell has delivered 4 targets within the Finals.

After being pulled in a 6-2 loss in Sport 3, Hunter Shepard has gained back-to-back video games, making 24 saves and shutting down a number of prime scoring possibilities from the Firebirds’ harmful assault in Sport 5.

“He gave us an opportunity to win,” Nelson stated of his Bastien Award successful goaltender. “After we broke down, Shep was there for us.”

Nelson stated that he had spoken with the Limoges-Huntington-Dubé line earlier than the sport and requested for extra. All three gamers got here to Hershey this season and are pursuing their first Calder Cup title.

“They responded rather well,” Nelson stated. “The blokes that haven’t gained a championship know the place we’re at proper now.”

Like they had been in final 12 months’s Finals, the Bears are up three video games to 2 – this time heading residence. A 12 months in the past, they misplaced Sport 6 earlier than closing out the collection. Huntington additionally identified a latest historical past that’s all too acquainted for the Bears: their 3-0 lead towards Cleveland within the Japanese Convention Finals that evaporated earlier than Hershey pulled out Sport 7 in additional time.

“I do know that they’ve an entire different gear,” Nelson stated of the Firebirds. “That’s what I count on in Sport 6.”

Stated Huntington, “The job will not be finished. We’ve another to go.”

TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for practically 20 years for shops together with NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey Information, SiriusXM NHL Community Radio and SLAM! Sports activities, and was most just lately the co-host of The Hockey Information On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.