The Coachella Valley Firebirds will begin their Calder Cup Finals rematch against the Hershey Bears Friday in Hershey, Pennsylvania at Giant Center, where they lost all three games in last year’s finals.
The series matches the teams with the American Hockey League’s best regular-season records.
The Bears had a league-best 53-14-0-5 record for 111 points. Their .771 points percentage was the second-best in the AHL’s 88-season history and their 53 victories the most in a 72-game season.
The Firebirds were 46-15-6-5 for 103 points.
The Firebirds scored a league-high 252 goals, while Hershey allowed the fewest, 151. The Firebirds allowed 182 goals, the second fewest. The Bears’ 229 goals were 11th in the 32-team league.
Hershey goaltender Hunter Shepard led the league in goals against, 1.76, and save percentage, .929, and won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender after winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the MVP of last season’s playoffs.
The Bears return 11 players from last season’s championship team, including Mike Vecchione, who scored the overtime game-winning goal in Game 7 of last year’s finals at Acrisure Arena, giving Hershey its record 12th championship in 24 finals appearances.
The Bears advanced to the 2024 finals with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Cleveland Monsters Wednesday at Giant Center in to win the Eastern Conference Finals, four games to three. Hershey won the first three games of the best-of-seven series, then lost the next three.
The Firebirds wrapped up the Western Conference Finals with a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals Saturday, winning the series, four games to one, to become the fourth team in AHL history to reach the Calder Cup Finals in each of its first two seasons.
The teams did not meet during the regular season under the AHL’s schedule format, which emphasizes divisional play.
This is the fourth time the same two teams have played in the Calder Cup Finals in back-to-back years, and the first since the Springfield Indians and Rochester Americans squared off both in 1990 and 1991. Springfield won the championship in both years.
The Firebirds are 10-2 in the playoffs. They lost their opener May 3, 4-1, to the Calgary Wranglers, then won their next nine — defeating Calgary, three games to one in the best-of-five Pacific Division Semifinals, sweeping the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate, in the best-of-five Pacific Division Finals, and winning the first three games against Milwaukee, before a Game 4 loss.
The Bears, the Washington Capitals’ AHL affiliate, are 10-4 in the playoffs, defeating the Leigh Valley Phantoms, three games to one in an Atlantic Division Semifinal series, and the Hartford Wolf Pack, three games to none, in the Atlantic Division Finals.
This will be the fourth time that Firebirds coach Dan Bylsma and Hershey coach Todd Nelson have met in the Calder Cup Finals.
They met as players in the 1994 finals between the Moncton Hawks and Portland Pirates, as assistant coaches in the 2008 finals between the Chicago Wolves and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and last year. Nelson has won each time.
Bylsma will become coach of the Firebirds’ NHL parent team, the Seattle Kraken, following the conclusion of the Calder Cup Finals.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Sunday, also at Giant Center. The series will shift to Acrisure Arena for Game 3 on Tuesday, Game 4 on Thursday, and if necessary, Game 5 on June 22.
Game 6 if necessary, would be played at Giant Center June 24, while Game 7, if necessary, would be played at Giant Center June 26.
Friday’s 4 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time game will be televised by Fox11.