The march to the Calder Cup continues tonight as the Cleveland Monsters begin their best-of-seven series against the Hershey Bears (Washington’s affiliate). The winner of this series will face the winner of the Western Conference finals between the Coachella Valley Firebirds (Seattle) and Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville).
The Monsters swept the Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay) in the semis, while Hershey did the same to the Hartford Wolf Pack (New York Rangers).
The big news for the Monsters is the return of team captain Brendan Gaunce. He spent 24 games with the Blue Jackets late in the season, then finished the season on the injured list. He has recovered and cleared waivers so he can return to the Monsters lineup, where he put up 19/20/39 in 46 games.
Schedule
The first two games will be broadcast on CW43 in Cleveland, and all games are streamed on AHLTV.
Regular Season Stats
| Hershey | Cleveland | |
| 229 | Goals | 233 |
| 151 | Goals Against | 238 |
| Ethen Frank, 29 | G Leader | Trey Fix-Wolansky, 26 |
| Joe Snively, 45 | A Leader | Trey Fix-Wolansky, 34 |
| Joe Snively, 59 | P Leader | Trey Fix-Wolansky, 60 |
| Dylan McIlrath, 100 | PIM Leader | James Malatesta, 79 |
| 29-7-0-0 | Home | 20-14-2-0 |
| 24-7-0-5 | Road | 20-10-3-5 |
Postseason Stats
| Hershey | Cleveland | |
| 26 | Goals | 22 |
| 11 | Goals Against | 13 |
| Ethen Frank, 5 | G Leader | Josh Dunne, 3 |
| Chase Priskie, Joe Snively, 6 | A Leader | Marcus Bjork, David Jiricek, Justin Pearson, 4 |
| Hendrix Lapierre, 8 | P Leader | Justin Pearson, 6 |
| Joe Snively, 16 | PIM Leader | Josh Dunne, Stanislav Svozill, Jakub Zboril, 8 |
| 4-0-0-0 | Home | 4-0-0-0 |
| 2-1-0-0 | Road | 2-1-0-0 |
Go Monsters!