Coachella Valley vs. Hershey Calder Cup Final Schedule At Bottom Of Story.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds know all about doing things the playoff hard way.
In the 2022-23 postseason, Coachella Valley needed all three games to defeat Tucson in the 1st round, all five games to beat Colorado in the 2nd round, and all five games - plus a deciding 5th game overtime - to oust Calgary in the 3rd round.
The Firebirds took out Milwaukee in "just" six games to win the Western Conference, before once again going the distance in the 2023 Final before losing to Hershey in a 7th-game overtime.
We mention all this, because those same Hershey Bears used the hardest of hard ways on Wednesday for the right to rematch with CV in the 2024 Calder Cup Final.
Speaking of Game 7 overtime, Hershey's Garrett Roe scored at 7:38 of the extra session Wednesday at Giant Center. The 3-2 victory finally put a stake in the Cleveland Monsters, sending the Bears in search of back-to-back Calder Cup titles.
In the 88-year history of the AHL, only five previous teams had rallied from down three games to none to force a deciding 7th game. (Three of those teams completed the comeback.)
The Firebirds in this year's postseason have made life much easier for themselves. By winning the Western Division regular season title, they earned a 1st round bye.
In the 2nd round, after an opening game loss to Calgary, Coachella won the next three. They went on to sweep Ontario in three straight in the Pacific Finals, then disposed of the Milwaukee Admirals for a second straight season, this time in a tidy five games.
That made the Seattle Kraken farm team Western Conference champs for both seasons of their existence.
Since concluding the Admirals series on Saturday, the Firebirds have awaited the winner of the Hershey-Cleveland Eastern Conference Finals. Actually, CV did more than wait: the team flew to Hershey on Sunday, practicing at Hersheypark Arena and getting acclimated to the Eastern Time Zone.
The Firebirds were anticipating a rematch with the Bears starting at Giant Center with Games 1 and 2. And they'll get it; just a lot later than they anticipated.
Editor's Note: Would you like a peek behind the curtain?
Knowing this story had to be filed on deadline no matter which team advanced to face the Firebirds, two alternate versions were prepared. Here's the one that would have been used had Cleveland prevailed.
I'm not saying a cross-country trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania can't be fun for your next group outing. You can take in a skate at Hersheypark Arena. If you time it right, you can take in a pair of Hershey Bears games at Giant Center.
(The free Hershey Chocolate Tour is pretty sweet, too.)
Let's hope those activities were sufficient for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, because their plan of getting a jump on facing the Bears in the AHL Calder Cup Final won't be happening.
Instead, their opponent in the Final will be the Cleveland Monsters, who became the fourth team in the 88-year history of the AHL to rally from down 3-0 to win a playoff series. Wednesday at Giant Center, the Monsters ( This part of the sentence will obviously go unfinished.)
That denies the Firebirds a chance to rematch with the Bears from the 2023 Final, won by Hershey in seven games. The upside for the Western Conference winners is that they get to start the championship series at home.
Because the Firebirds secured more points than the Monsters in the regular season, Games 1 and 2 (and 6 and 7, if necessary) will be played at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA.
CV has been - well, not quite idle, they did take a trip to central PA - without hockey to play since disposing of the Milwaukee Admirals in five games on Saturday. Coach Dan Bylsma and his staff did get two in-person looks at Cleveland.
That proved valuable, because the Firebirds and Monsters didn't play in the 2023-24 regular season. In fact, during the two years of their existence, Coachella Valley and Cleveland have never met.
Until now.
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