Hershey Bears On Brink Of Collapse As Cleveland Monsters Force Game 7

The Washington Capitals' AHL affiliate Hershey Bears are in unfamiliar territory, and they find themselves with their backs against the wall and facing a series collapse after a rough Game 6 overtime loss to the Cleveland Monsters in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Hershey took a 2-1 lead with 49.3 seconds left in regulation, with Joe Snively putting home his second goal of the playoffs off a picture-perfect passing play from Chase Priskie and Hendrix Lapierre.

That lead, which put them one step closer to a return to the Calder Cup Final, was quickly erased, though, as Brendan Gaunce tied the game just 17 seconds later to force overtime.

It was a tight matchup, and Henrik Rybinski also scored for the Bears in regulation, but Jake Christiansen would score late into the first overtime to secure a 3-2 victory for Cleveland.

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Hunter Shepard stopped 29 of 32 shots in the loss (.906 save percentage), recovering fairly well after having been pulled last game after two periods in Saturday's 5-1 loss to the Monsters.

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The Bears have now suffered three straight losses after dropping just one game to start this entire playoff run. Game 7 will be in Hershey on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, where Hershey faces elimination for the first time as Cleveland has come back and given them quite the series .

If the Bears can prevail and take the Eastern Conference title, they will play in a rematch of last year's final and face the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Seattle Kraken's AHL affiliate.