The Hershey Bears (Washington Capitals affiliate) beat the Texas Stars (Dallas Stars affiliate) 4-0 to win their Calder Cup series 4-2 last night. NHL.com captures the significance of the Bears’ historic 2009-10 season.
The Bears became the AHL’s first repeat champions in 19 years, capping a comeback from a 2-0 series deficit with a 4-0 victory over the Texas Stars on Monday night in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals.
The AHL’s regular-season champs dropped the first two games of the final, but won three in a row in Texas before delighting the sellout crowd of 11,002 at the Giant Center with the most dominant effort by either team in the series. The Bears, the Washington Capitals’ top farm team, won the Calder Cup for the 11th time overall and third in five years -- but the first in Hershey since 1980. They are the first team since Springfield in 1990 and 1991 to repeat as Calder Cup champions, and they did it after setting an AHL regular-season record with 60 victories.
Michal Neuvirth earned the shutout. There is a solid chance that Neuvirth, Alzner and Carlson will all play quite a bit with the Washington Capitals next season.
While their parent club still hopes to find postseason success, the Bears’ profound minor league dominance bodes well for the future of the Capitals franchise. There’s really only one big minus of Hershey’s win: it really brings the point home that hockey season is over.