AHL notebook: Hershey’s championship repeat highlighted memorable year

The American Hockey League packed a set of memories into 2024.

The NHL’s top developmental league featured a team going for a Calder Cup repeat, a team pursuing one the league’s most difficult records, an outdoor game, and more. Here is a look at 2024 in the AHL:

Hershey (Washington Capitals) wins its second consecutive Calder Cup

Washington and Hershey, the senior-most franchise in the AHL, have had a highly productive affiliation that goes back to the 2005-06 season.

Capitals forwards Hendrix Lapierre, Connor McMichael, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Aliaksei Protas, and Jakub Vrana have all developed in Hershey as have defensemen Alexander Alexeyev, John Carlson, Martin Fehervary, and Dylan McIlrath. Coach Spencer Carbery spent three seasons in that same role with Hershey.

This past June, Hershey won the Calder Cup for the second consecutive year. The team won the best-of-7 series in six games against Coachella Valley (Seattle Kraken), the second year in a row that the teams have met in the Calder Cup Finals. Matt Strome had the overtime game-winning goal, the 11th time that the Calder Cup Finals have been decided in overtime. It was the first time that a team has won the Calder Cup in back-to-back years since Hershey did so in 2009 and 2010. Lapierre won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player in the Calder Cup Playoffs and had 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 20 games.

Hershey is bidding to become the first team to win the Calder Cup in three consecutive seasons since Springfield did so between 1960 and 1962, and Capitals management worked this past summer to refortify the Hershey roster. That work has paid off through the first third of the season, and the team leads the Eastern Conference with an 18-9-0-3 record.

Hershey has one of the best regular seasons in AHL history

In 1992-93, Binghamton (New York Rangers) set the AHL regular-season record for points (124), and point percentage (.775) in what was an 80-game season.

Thirty-two years later, Hershey took a run at those records. Hershey finished 53-14-0-5 and set a record for most wins in a 72-game season. The team’s .771 point percentage also fell just short of the record set by Binghamton in 1992-93. In its 86th season, Hershey did not have back-to-back regulation losses for the first time in team history.

Hershey goalies Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson combined to win the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the team’s league-best 2.10 goals-against average. Shepard, who led the league in goals-against average (1.76) and save percentage (.929), also was a member of the AHL First All-Star Team. Hershey had 12 shutouts, and Stevenson set a team rookie record with seven of them.

Hershey also had a 24-7-0-5 (.736) road record, the best road point percentage in team history.

Milwaukee (Nashville Predators) wins 19 consecutive games

Milwaukee made a bid for history with 19 straight wins in a franchise-record streak that stretched from Jan. 5 through Feb. 24.

Grand Rapids (Detroit Red Wings) ended the streak with a 4-2 win at home Feb. 25. Grand Rapids had entered that game with a 14-game point streak (10-0-2-2). The AHL record for a winning streak was set by Norfolk (Tampa Bay Lightning) in 2011-12 with 28 wins in a row. Milwaukee went to the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row but lost the best-of-7 series against Coachella Valley in five games.

Charlotte (Florida Panthers) host outdoor game

Charlotte hosted the 12th outdoor game in AHL history Jan. 13 at Truist Field, the home of the Triple-A affiliate of the MLB’s Chicago White Sox.

The downtown stadium had a standing-room crowd of 11,031 for the Queen City Classic. Charlotte defeated Rochester (Buffalo Sabres), 5-2. Mackie Samoskevich had the winning goal at 1:16 of the third period while Spencer Knight had 25 saves.

Carolina Hurricanes reestablish affiliation with Chicago

After one season apart from Chicago, the Hurricanes again have their own AHL affiliate.

Chicago had played the 2023-24 season without an affiliation and finished with a 23-35-7-7 record. The team did not qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Without their own AHL affiliate, the Hurricanes sprinkled their prospects across several AHL teams and Europe. The two teams announced a three-year affiliation agreement May 2 in a move that reunited the two sides that had combined to win the Calder Cup in 2022.

Carolina management stocked the Chicago roster with several top prospects including rookie defenseman Scott Morrow and rookie Bradly Nadeau, a forward they selected in the first round (No. 30) of the 2023 NHL Draft. The prospect base in Chicago also includes forwards Noel Gunler, Aleksi Heimosalmi, and Felix Unger-Sorum. Carolina also hired Cam Abbott as the new coach for Chicago.

After a slow start, Chicago has started to make significant progress in the AHL standings. The team is 14-9-2-0, third in the Central Division, and has an eight-game point streak (7-0-1-0).