Hershey brings Amerks playoff ride to an end

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

As the end-of-series handshake line wound down and the Hershey Bears danced off to their dressing room to celebrate the Calder Cup Eastern Conference championship, the Rochester Americans, heads held high, gathered at center ice for one final salute to the fans.

Their improbable yet captivating playoff run had come to an unceremonious end on Friday night after six monumental every-other-night battles.

They fell behind in Game 6 when Hershey’s Shane Gersich scored 12:40 into the second period, and then goalie Hunter Shepard made sure it was the only goal the Bears needed. Shepard stopped all 24 shots as the Bears blanked the Amerks 1-0 to win the best-of-seven series 4-2.

The loss stung; it stung very badly.

But then, what were they even doing playing on Friday night? This team, treading water just to maintain a playoff spot for much of February and March, was still playing on June 2? A team that needed a minor miracle to win the regular season finale in Cleveland just to avoid the mini-round play-in series was playing in the conference finals?

“In late February we weren’t even in a playoff spot,” defenseman Lawrence Pilut said. “But the competitiveness and the character in the room, that’s something special.”

Indeed, it was, and while it was painful for players and coaches to feel it suddenly end, there was great pride as they said thank you from the ice to the 8,777 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial with claps and stick waves.

“You take a step back and look at everything that happened since September in training camp to where we are now, you look at the big picture, and today is pretty special,” captain Michael Mersch said.

The vast majority of fans agreed, staying to watch the handshakes and then cheer the end-of-season salute by the players.

The franchise hadn’t played a playoff game in June in 19 years, or when three players in Friday’s lineup were 2 years old — or younger.

“By the middle of this season I think this was an easy team to love, and an easy team to root for, because there were a lot of reasons not to be successful or not to be on the cusp of greatness, yet they found ways to do that,” coach Seth Appert said. “Rochester at heart is a blue-collar town, it’s a town that appreciates honest work and competitiveness and teamwork.”

In the end, however, the Bears were one goal better when it mattered most. They may not have been the better team on Friday – the Amerks out-chanced Hershey and created far more dangerous chances – but their goalie was terrific again, posting his second shutout of the series.

“This might have been our best game of the series,” Appert said.

Other than, of course, scoring. The Bears team defense was very good when it needed to be. They blocked numerous good looks, including two by Jiri Kulich on power plays. It seemed every time there was a loose puck during a scramble, a lunge or dive by a Bears defender would sweep it away.

“It just didn’t feel like it wanted to go in today,” rookie winger Isak Rosen said.

That was best illustrated late in the second period, when the Amerks had a five-on-three power play for a minute and 25 seconds. They couldn’t score. Jake Massie blocked a Kulich one-timer, another Kulich shot was tipped wide out of the air by a defender’s stick.

In the simplest means of breaking down the series, it was the power play that cost the Amerks. They were just 1-for-15.

And so, they head their separate ways for the summer, or, in some cases, forever. That’s the part that really hurt for Appert, and the players.

“You want to win a Calder Cup, obviously, but it’s probably less that and more that I won’t get to coach this team again, that’s the reality,” Appert said. “This group, this group of men, it changes next year.

“It took time for us to become who we became. They had to fight really hard to become a team that played the right way and really loved playing for each other, that loved being Amerks, but we grew to that and I’m incredibly proud of them.”

He wasn’t the only one. They became the sporting darlings of the city, selling out three of the six home playoff games – jamming 10,662 or more into the building for those three games. Total attendance for six playoff games was 57,159.

That’s one reason Pilut skated slowly around the perimeter of the rink in the Amerks zone, holding his stick skyward as he clapped the blade with his hand.

“The fans have been incredible,” Rosen said. “They helped us so much. I’m never going to forget Game 5 in Syracuse, it felt like a home game. It’s been fantastic to see what this means for the town.”

Said Pilut: “It was really cool to see. It brought out the whole city of Rochester.”

There were endless what-ifs for the players after Friday’s game. The shots that just missed. The passes that were tipped away or blocked. But mostly, there was reflection as to the team that they had become.

“It was a helluva ride,” Rosen said. “Maybe we don’t feel it now, but I’m proud of everyone on this team.”

Injury note: Winger Linus Weissbach suffered a lower body injury in the first period and did not return. The Amerks played the final two periods with 10 forwards and seven defensemen, though defenseman Austin Strand played very little. Still, the Amerks had the better of the territorial play and outshot Hershey 24-19.