Bears, Monsters meet in 2024 Eastern Conference Finals

HERSHEY, Pa. -

The 2024 AHL Eastern Conference Finals pits the regular season & postseason champions from the Atlantic and North Divisions in a head-to-head matchup in a best-of-seven series to decide who will advance to the 2024 Calder Cup Finals.

The Eastern Conference Finals kick off Thursday night at Giant Center as the Hershey Bears look to continue their title defense against a Cleveland Monsters team eager for the challenge of facing the AHL's top team in the regular season.

"That's arguably the best team in the history of the league. And so we're gonna get right to work and we're gonna, we're gonna go right at them. The way our group is, it just doesn't matter who you play when, where, we just got to play our way and I like our chances and I'll be proud of that group. So I'm excited to get started. And this is why you play. You got to beat the best to be the best They are, bar none, the best and it's a great opportunity for our guys. And it's a great challenge. I couldn't be more excited," Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber said of his team facing Hershey in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Cleveland took care of business in the North Division as the number one seed, defeating the Belleville Senators in four games before sweeping the Syracuse Crunch in the North Division Finals to get to this year's conference finals round.

Hershey defeated rival Lehigh Valley in four games in their first playoff series of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs before sweeping the Hartford Wolf Pack in the North Division Finals.

"They're playing really connected hockey right now. Playing hard for each other, playing physical, and they're out working their opponents. So it's gonna be a tough series for sure," Bears head coach Todd Nelson said of facing Cleveland in the AHL's final four. "I'm not sure where it's going to go, we'll take it game by game, but we'll prepare the guys the best way possible."

While they had regular season success with a franchise record 53-win regular season campaign, Hershey isn't satisfied with just qualifying for the playoffs and winning a few rounds.

They're in it to win it all and look to repeat as Calder Cup champions.

Both teams had the benefit of first-round byes, with Hershey having played seven games in the last 41 days entering Thursday's game and the Monsters having played seven games in the last 39 days.

If this series goes the distance, it would see the Bears and Monsters play seven games in 14 days. How the teams respond to the increased intensity plus less recovery time could determine who comes out on top and heads to the 2024 Calder Cup Finals.

"It's going to be a grind," Nelson said of the switch to the best-of-seven series in the final two rounds of the postseason, before adding that the longer series benefits both teams in their ability to recover and make adjustments and will be more telling of who the better team is versus the shorter best-of-five series.

Game 1 Lineup Notes

At the team's morning skate Thursday, Nelson told media present that forward Riley Sutter will return to the Bears' lineup for Game 1.

Forward Ethen Frank, who missed Game 3 vs Hartford last Wednesday, has been skating at practice as a full participant and is also expected to return to the lineup Thursday.

Matthew Phillips appears to be the odd man out up front, though with Frank and Sutter returning there will be one more forward coming out of Hershey's lineup - likely either Garrett Roe or one of the team's fourth line forwards - Matt Strome, Henrik Rybinski or Bogdan Trineyev.

Defenseman Logan Day, injured in Game 3 of the team's series against Lehigh Valley, isn't quite ready to return to game action just yet.

Defenseman Hardy Haman Atkell will also miss tonight's game due to a lower body injury.

For Cleveland, they got a bit of a boost earlier this week with captain Brendan Gaunce able to return to the Monsters for Game 1 after being injured while on NHL recall to Columbus.

All eyes remain on the Monsters' situation in net coming into this series as Jett Greaves missed Cleveland's Game 3 win in Syracuse last Wednesday with veteran Malcolm Subban getting the start in net for that tilt.