The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are a great team, better than their record in the regular season indicated. The mix of young American Hockey League (AHL) players and teenage prospects was playing the right way at the right time, allowing them to win four of their first five Calder Cup Playoff games. “Lehigh’s a hell of a team, I have a lot of respect for them,” Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson noted after Game 5.
The Phantoms had a 2-1 series lead and looked like they’d win Game 4 or a necessary Game 5 to advance to the next round. But the Bears have been down before, and every time they’ve needed a win, Nelson gets the best out of this group, and they’ve come through. “There was never any panic at any point,” Spencer Smallman stated after Game 5 as well. The Bears won Game 4 with a 6-4 scoring spree and then played their brand of defense-first hockey in the winner-take-all game to win 4-2 to advance past their Pennsylvania rival.
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There are some teams in every sport that have an inevitability to them. The Montreal Canadiens, the New York Yankees, the New York Islanders in the early 1980s, the New England Patriots of the 2000s, or the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020s. Add the Hershey Bears to that list. They might not have the best roster, but they have a group that knows how to win games. “It doesn’t matter who is in the lineup, it shows how much character we have in the room,” Riley Sutter noted after Game 5. Sutter entered the game with four goals all season. He scored twice in the deciding game against the Phantoms to give them the victory.
Game 5 was a build-up for the Bears, where they’ve battled all season and all series to get to the big games and win them. “That was a battle, that was a war, we’re definitely battle-tested after this,” Nelson remarked after the game. The Phantoms gave them all they could handle, yet they jumped out to an early lead, scoring twice in the first period, and once in the second, then fended off the late surge and scored an empty-net goal to secure the 4-2 victory.
A third consecutive Calder Cup title is still in play, and it’s never looked more like a possibility. It’s only possible because of how this team battled back and not only dominated Game 4 but also controlled Game 5 to take the series.
Bears Get Clutch Scoring
There must be a clutch gene in Matt Strome and Riley Sutter. There probably is, since both forwards come from hockey families (Strome has brothers, Dylan and Ryan, in the NHL, while there are more than enough Sutters to count). They scored two goals and added an assist in a game where the Bears needed them to. Ironically, that’s not why they were on the ice in Game 5.
“Their line of Wisdom, Gaucher, and Lychsell was a pretty dominant line, so I tried to get Sutter and Strome out there as much as I could against them,” Nelson remarked about where the Phantoms were getting their offense. The veteran duo was on the ice for their defense. “Their job tonight was to keep this line off the scoresheet, and they take that role seriously. They are a line that shuts opponents down,” Nelson continued.
That said, when the Bears needed a goal, they got it from that duo. With a 1-0 lead in the first period, they created an odd-man rush where Strome found Sutter with a cross-ice pass. In the second period, it was Garrett Roe outskating the Phantoms to the puck behind the net to both beat out the icing call and find Sutter with a centering pass for the goal that gave the Bears a commanding 3-0 lead.
Strome scored the Game 6 game-winner in the Calder Cup Final last year, winning the game in overtime and giving the Bears their second title in a row. When this team needs a big play from him, he can find it on the offensive end of the ice. “It’s that dog in him. He plays big in big situations and he’s been doing it for us all season,” Sutter added. With the season on the line, the Bears found offense from Strome and Sutter, a duo that plays a fourth-line role but found that clutch goal.
Loose Pucks Were the Biggest Difference
The gap between the Bears and the Phantoms is minimal. This series went back and forth and could have gone either way. The differences were minimal but went a long way. Penalties stood out, so did the ability to capitalize on mistakes, and the situational awareness from the skaters on the ice. The Bears had the advantage in all three areas, and it’s why they advanced while the Phantoms are going home.
Understanding situations is a big part of the playoffs, and the last two games in particular. There were a lot of loose pucks in front of the net, and the Bears cleaned up those loose pucks. They helped out Clay Stevenson in Game 4 by getting the puck out of harm’s way and saved Hunter Shepard by cleaning up the pucks and moving them out of the defensive zone to eliminate extra opportunities.
On the other side of the ice, the Bears collected rebounds near the net and finished scoring chances. They found the back of the net six times in Game 4, with most of those goals coming off of juicy rebounds that the Phantoms didn’t stop, and forwards Perrick Dube could muscle home (he scored twice in the fourth game). It’s how they got things started in Game 5. The Bears peppered Cal Peterson with shots early on, and Smallman found a rebound and buried it to score the first goal of the game.
There’s a fine line between good and great teams in the AHL. Great teams find ways to get to the dirty areas and find the back of the net. That’s what the Bears did, and it gave them a series win.
Great Goaltending Just Needs to Be Great In the Big Games
If there was one issue that would be the undoing of the Bears in the playoffs, it would be goaltending. Shepard wasn’t great this season, and neither was Stevenson, with both putting together a save percentage (SV%) under .900 while the rest of the league saw an improvement in goaltending. Shepard struggled in Game 2 and then unraveled in Game 3, and it looked like the Bears would lose the series.
When needed, the goaltending duo delivered. Nelson made the bold move for Game 4 by starting Stevenson; it’s bold considering Shepard’s been his starter through the last two playoff runs. “I just wanted to shake things up, if we’re going down, we’re going down swinging,” Nelson noted after Game 4. Stevenson allowed four goals but made the big saves to help secure the win. After the strong start, the expectation was that he’d be in the net for the winner-take-all game as well.
“Clay got the job done in Game 4, but over the past few years with Shepard in a Game 5, an elimination game, we knew he was comfortable, and he played well for us tonight,” Nelson noted after Game 5. In a bold move, he went back to the veteran who wasn’t great all season. With the season on the line, he was lights out. He didn’t shut out the Phantoms like his Game 1 performance, but he made the saves needed while only allowing two goals in the third period to fuel the victory.
The Bears don’t have a goaltending duo that scares teams. It’s not better than the Charlotte Checkers duo, the Providence Bruins unit, or most goaltending groups within their division. However, they have a duo that can lead the Bears on a run, and Nelson will treat them as such. “We’re going to need both guys, I feel comfortable with both guys,” he added when asked how he’ll manage the position moving forward.
Hershey Wins a Battle & It Prepares Them For the Road Ahead
The Phantoms gave the Bears all they could handle and pushed them to the brink. They played a similar style of hockey and almost beat the Bears at their own game. The forecheck and physical play stood out and allowed grinders like Anthony Richard and Zayde Wisdom to stand out, scoring a combined seven goals during the playoff run. This series came down to the final game, and the defending champions pulled through. “It speaks volumes to the character. It speaks volumes to leadership and the experience that these guys have been here,” Nelson noted after the clinching game.
After a tough series, the Bears face the Checkers, a team that, without question, is suited to knock off the Bears. The Checkers can score, and they check as well. Yet, the Bears have been here before. “The experience of playing in big moments, in the playoffs, not getting too high or too low, and it worked to our advantage,” Smallman stated after the series against the Phantoms, and now, they look ready to go up against anyone in the league.
It’s hard to win in back-to-back seasons. It’s harder to win three seasons in a row, an almost unprecedented feat in the AHL (it happened in the 1960s when the league was much different than it is now). With the Bears, they’ve proven they can’t be counted out until the final horn sounds. They might not be the most talented team in the playoffs, yet when they need a win, they know how to get it.
“We’ve been here before, let’s take a breath, and let’s get the job done,” Nelson told his team in the final minutes of Game 5 as the Phantoms were pressing with the net empty. It’s that message that will remain with the team as they continue their quest for another Calder Cup title.
