Forced into desperation, Hershey responded with urgency in Game 3 win

Forced into desperation, Hershey responded with urgency in Game 3 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

HERSHEY, Pa. — The last time the Hershey Bears won a Calder Cup Final game, they were clinching a championship. On Tuesday night, they needed one just to keep their title hopes alive.

Hershey beat the Coachella Valley Firebirds 5-4 in overtime for a thrilling Game 3 victory in front of a packed Giant Center crowd. After being outscored 9-0 over the first two games of the Finals, the Bears made it a series by cutting the Firebirds’ lead to 2-1 instead of letting them open up a likely insurmountable 3-0 lead.

They did come close to letting the game slip away, losing a 4-2 lead in the final seven minutes of regulation before Coachella Valley controlled the puck for most of the overtime period. However, the Firebirds couldn’t put Hershey away and the home team finally scored the decisive goal 13 minutes into OT when center Riley Sutter tapped in a rebound.

A loss wouldn’t have eliminated the Bears on Tuesday night, but the team understood the state of desperation it was in after its showing in Palm Desert.

“Throughout the season, we didn’t have to go through it all that often,” Sutter said in his postgame press conference. “It’s the first time in a while we had to do it so I think this shows the character we have in the room and hopefully we can continue to do that.”

Hershey earned a first-round bye with a 97-point regular season before cruising through their first two playoff series. The Bears faced some adversity in the Eastern Conference Finals when the Rochester Americans beat them 5-1 in Game 1, but they responded by winning three straight games to take control of the series.

With two more games at home before the series would head back to California, the Bears have the chance to do the same thing in the Finals.

“Obviously, going down 3-0 in a series is a tough thing to come back [from] and I think it was a huge thing we were able to get this win in overtime,” right wing Garrett Pilon said. “It’s kind of just moving forward now from here, still having a little bit of that 10-second memory because we can’t get too high on this and we still have to come out next game and do the task at hand.”

If there’s anywhere the Bears need to look for inspiration, they only have to peer back to that last Calder Cup title. Hershey won its last championship despite stumbling out to an 0-2 start to the series. Sometimes, a little desperation can go a long way.