It was rocky, and at some points it looked like the end of the road, but it wasn’t for the Hershey Bears, as the team moves on to the Atlantic Division finals, looking to win their tenth straight playoff series, expanding upon an AHL record set on Sunday.

In the way: the Charlotte Checkers, the runner-ups in the regular season of the Atlantic Division, and the fourth best team in the AHL following the regular season. The Checkers put together a 44-28 record, better than Central Division top-seeded Milwaukee Admirals.

The Bears and Checkers faced off in the Atlantic Division Semifinals, a four-game series win. Like this series coming up on Friday, the first two games were held in Charlotte, and the last stretch was in Hershey. The Bears outscored Charlotte, 10-3, in the first two games down south, with 5-2 and 5-1 wins. Charlotte took Game 3 at GIANT Center, 2-1, before a Game 4, series-clinching win, 6-2. Charlotte was coming off a 2-1 series win against Lehigh Valley.

However, Hershey is 1-2 in playoff series against the Checkers, and 5-9 in playoff games. This season, the two teams are 4-4 against each other, with Alex Limoges scoring five points off two goals and three assists against the team. John Leonard leads Charlotte against Hershey with six total points of three goals and three assists.

There is no scheduling advantage for Charlotte in terms of turnaround. They played their own down to the wire series against Providence, which went five games and finished just an hour and a half earlier than Hershey finished their series with Lehigh Valley. Both teams got to host their Game Fives.

Charlotte made waves with their defense in Game 5 against the Bruins, limiting Providence to only one shot in the first period, three in the second, and four in the third for an opposing shot total of eight. But, Providence made some waves off eight shots, scoring two in the third period and cutting Charlotte’s lead to just one. Two-empty netters from the Checkers comfortably put Providence to bed. 

There’s no denying that it’s a weird series structure after an emotional series against Lehigh Valley. It’s easy to get caught up in the potential scenario that if Charlotte wins both home games, the Bears will have to win three games at home in four days in order to stay alive in the playoffs.

“You can’t look ahead,” says Todd Nelson. “‘Ok, if what if this happens, we’re coming home, we got to win all three.’ We’ll take the first game, that’s all we’re looking at, the first game.”

He later went on to address the series format, with the first two on the road, then three at home, saying “It’s a format that you have the home-ice advantage, but when you’re starting against a good team on the road in Charlotte, in a five-game series, we went through this two years ago, and we had to go down there and we were forced to get the two wins there, but we just got to make sure we’re focused on game one.”

Swedish forward Wilmer Skoog leads the Checkers in playoff points after three goals and an assist in the series against Providence. He is an unlikely hero, after talling just nine goals and 15 assists, yet playing all 72 games in Charlotte this season.

In regular season play, John Leonard was the leader, with 36 goals and 25 assists. It’s Leonard’s first year in Charlotte, after spending the 2023-24 with the Tuscon Roadrunners, and seasons with Milwaukee and San Jose beforehand. In the series with Providence, Leonard had a goal in game one, and assists in games three and five.

Defenseman Trevor Carrick, an AHL veteran, also tallied 50 points this season on 13 goals and 37 assists. It’s also his first year in Charlotte for this stint, as he spent 2014 to 2019 with the team. He spent time in San Jose, San Diego and Syracuse before returning for this season. Carrick scored three goals and added nine assists in the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs with the Checkers, en route to the franchise’s first Calder Cup in history. He’ll suit up for his 45th career playoff game on Friday night.

Lastly, in Hershey news, Clay Stevenson was recalled by the Washington Capitals on Thursday morning, as the Capitals fight against their own North Carolina foe, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes took games one, three and four in the best-of-seven East 2nd Round, and could finish off the Capitals on Thursday night. 

The Capitals are no longer favorites to win the series, and some think they could be finished with their season as soon as late Thursday night, so the time for Stevenson up in the NHL could be short-lived. For now, the backup goalie in Hershey is presumably Garin Bjorklund, who was called up on Monday, alongside his ECHL South Carolina Stingrays teammate, Seth Eisele. Both Bjorklund and Eisele, along with Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson, were present at practice on Monday morning.