Hershey doesn't always melt in the heat. The Bears came through in a Game 7 overtime thriller to defeat the Coachella Valley Firebirds and win the AHL's Calder Cup.

The AHL's oldest team came to the desert in Game 7 and defeated the league's newest squad to capture the Calder Cup on Wednesday night.

The Hershey Bears are AHL champions for the first time since 2010 and for the league-leading 12th time in their history. The AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals beat the Seattle Kraken's affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, 3-2 in overtime at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. 

Hershey's alternate captain, 30-year-old Mike Vecchione, scored the Cup clincher.

It was the second time in AHL history that Game 7 of the Calder Cup final went to overtime. The first time came in 1953 when the Cleveland Barons beat the Pittsburgh Hornets 1-0.

The Firebirds’ big guns set the tone early in Game 7, with Andrew Poturalski setting up Ryker Evans, who made no mistake to give Coachella Valley a 1-0 lead just 4:41 into the game. Evans — who led all defensemen with 26 points in 26 Calder Cup playoff games — has had no shortage of timely goals this post-season. The 21-year-old also scored the triple-OT winner in Game 3 of Coachella Valley’s second-round series against the Calgary Wranglers. 

The first period was all Coachella Valley, who held a 17-12 shot edge through the first frame.

Coachella Valley’s first-period momentum bled into the second frame, with captain Max McCormick scoring 24 seconds in. The Firebirds had a firm grip for much of the second period, too, as they suffocated the Bears in the neutral zone and continued to prevent Hershey from generating any Grade-A chances.

The Bears responded, thanks to two recent first-round picks of the Washington Capitals. 

Connor McMichael (25th overall in 2019) snuck the back door on the power play to cut the Bears' margin to one with 6:08 remaining. Hendrix Lapierre (22nd overall in 2020) tipped a puck at the net front to tie the game late in the middle frame. 

Neither McMichael (10 points in 20 playoff games) nor Lapierre (six points in 20 playoff games) has had a spectacular post-season, but there’s surely a currency to making a big contribution in Game 7 of the Calder Cup final.

Those two goals saved the season. There were no goals in the third period, but there was no shortage of action. Hershey — who outshot the Firebirds 9-4 in the final frame — started to generate quality chances. But Firebirds netminder Joey Daccord stood tall on each chance, eliciting chants of ‘Joey! Joey! Joey!’ that had fans inside Acrisure Arena on their feet throughout the third period.

Neither team was conservative in overtime, but the Bears were able to regain the center of the ice. 

Offensively, they regrouped their attack through the neutral zone — bypassing Coachella Valley’s attempts to stop them in their tracks — and created chaos in front of Daccord. 

With 3:42 left in the first overtime period, Vecchione capped off the season in true Hershey Bears fashion by banging home a puck right in Daccord’s kitchen to win the Calder Cup and silence the home crowd. 

Vecchione's goal captured the Bears' identity throughout the year as a hard-nosed team that imposes its relentless forecheck to grind down opponents. It wasn’t always pretty — or exciting, even — but Hershey always found a way.

Their post-season journey started with a bye for the play-in round after finishing second in the Eastern Conference with a 44-19-5-4 record.

The Bears then recorded a 6-1 record through their first two series.

First, it was the Charlotte Checkers in the Atlantic Division semifinal. Hershey took them down in four games during the best-of-five series, outscoring the Checkers 17-7 in the process.

Next, it was the Hartford Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division final. The New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate was coming off a shocking upset over the Providence Bruins – the No. 1 seed in the East. But Hershey swept Hartford in the best-of-five series.

Then, it was the Rochester Americans – a Buffalo Sabres affiliate full of skill and high-end prospects — who played a much more exciting brand of hockey. But Hershey took them down them 4-2 in the best-of-seven series.

Hershey always found a way to avoid falling behind in those three series matchups, but the beginning of the Calder Cup final proved to be a different story.

After Game 1 and Game 2 of the Calder Cup final against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Bears looked like they had run out of gas. Coachella outscored Hershey 9-0 in those first two games. The Bears struggled to generate quality chances at 5-on-5, with the Firebirds outproducing Hershey 18-10 in 5-on-5 slot shots, according to InStat data.

With their backs against the wall, Hershey won the next three games in front of three consecutive sell-out crowds at Giant Center. 

Ethen Frank, a healthy scratch in Game 1, returned to regular-season form. Bears goaltender Hunter Shepard was able to make more saves once the players in front of him tightened things up. Garrett Pilon scored the OT winner in Game 5 to give the Bears a 3-2 series lead heading back to Coachella Valley.

At the start of Game 6, it felt like the stars aligned for Hershey to win it all. The Washington Capitals' 2019 first-round pick, Connor McMichael, scored 1:33 into the first period. But the Firebireds’ veteran-heavy team suffocated the Bears within that first period, scoring three straight goals in response. Coachella Valley took Game 6 by a 5-2 score. 

That set up the grand finale. Once again, when it looked like Hershey was at the end of their road, they found a way. 

After allowing five goals on 22 shots in Game 6, Shepard responded with a performance for the ages — saving 45 of 47 shots faced. The 27-year-old received the AHL playoff MVP honors with the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy after posting three shutouts, a .914 save percentage and 2.27 goals-against average in 20 games of action. 

It wasn’t pretty, but the place known for chocolate didn’t melt in the desert after all.