The Chicago Blackhawks may rule the NHL, but there is a dynasty in hockey and it is not in the "bigs". In the American Hockey League, it was crowned tonight. The Keystone state of Pennsylvania still has a hockey champion to brag about.
With a 4-0 shutout of the Texas Stars, the Hershey Bears won their fourth game in a row, in the best of seven series, to capture a second consecutive Calder Cup. It was their third Cup in five years, and the franchise's eleventh Calder Cup. No other AHL team has won the Calder more times. This is the definition of dynasty.
The Bears' championship capped a record-breaking 60-17 season with 123 points. Second place Albany finished 29 points behind Hershey. Tonight's shutout put the icing on an amazing performance this year. The Bears did it in front of a sellout crowd at the Giant Center in Hershey. Their fans waited 30 years for the club to win the Calder on home ice. The last time was in 1980. Tonight, they were rewarded.
Sellout crowds in Hershey are not reserved for playoff games. The fan base has existed since 1936, when the franchise was started by Milton Hershey. It is the oldest continuous team in the American Hockey League. The waiting list for season tickets is long, with seats held in families for generations.
Among the Hershey players tonight was left winger Chris Bourque, an American kid who was born in Boston in 1986. That was one year after his dad, Ray Bourque, became a co-captain of the Boston Bruins. Bourque Sr. was in the crowd tonight, and was able to have a picture taken with Chris down on the ice.
The crowning of the Bears is a fitting end to the 2009-2010 season, a year filled with the Olympics, IIHF World Championships and a tremendous (dare I say breakout) year for NHL hockey. Ratings went through the roof this year. With coverage by NBC and Versus, with the NHL Network getting into 80 million homes, hockey gained huge exposure and reached fans who had never before seen the sport.
Hats off to the Hershey Bears, to the Chicago Blackhawks, to the Windsor Spitfires, to the IIHF Champion Czech Republic, to Team USA's paralympic gold medal team and to Team Canada's Olympic champions. It has been a good year for hockey.
In nine days, the season really ends in Las Vegas with the NHL Awards on June 23rd. Las Vegas is also the site of the NHL Entry Draft on June 25th-26th. And then everyone takes a well-deserved break for July and August (with summer hockey camps all over the place).
Hockey Rules.
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