The Hershey Bears have been in this situation before. Probably more times than they have wanted.
In the division semifinals this spring, Hershey was shut out in Game 3 before finishing off Lehigh Valley in Game 4. During last year’s Calder Cup championship run, the Bears lost games at home to Charlotte in the division semis and to Rochester in the Eastern Conference Finals with a chance to advance. And of course there was the Game 6 loss in Coachella Valley before capturing the Cup in Game 7.
In fact, since 2015, the Bears have won 12 playoff series, but have lost at least one potential clinching game in nine of them.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge,” captain Dylan McIlrath told FOX 43 after Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Cleveland in Game 5 cut their series lead to three games to two.
After three games in front of a total of more than 40,000 fans at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, the Bears are happy to be returning home, where they have not lost all postseason.
“We’re excited to get in front of our fans,” McIlrath added. “They carry us. The sixth man out there. It will be really nice. We know that [Giant Center] is going to be rocking.”
The Bears’ path to their 25th Calder Cup Finals appearance is not as clear as it was four days ago. Back-to-back losses – their first since Games 1 and 2 of last year’s Finals series against Coachella Valley – have put Hershey in a position seen only once previously in the franchise’s 86-year history.
Before this series, the Bears had led a series 3-0 on 22 different occasions. They completed a sweep 14 times, and finished off the series in Game 5 seven other times.
The only opponent to push Hershey as far as Game 6 was the 1989 Adirondack Red Wings, who won that sixth game at Hersheypark Arena before completing the comeback on Adam Graves’ overtime goal back at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Game 7.
― with files from Patrick Williams
