PALM DESERT, Calif. — While Hershey Bears fans are hoping to repeat the roar, Coachella Valley Firebirds fans are looking for redemption in a rematch of last year's Calder Cup Finals. With the series at 2-1 in favor of the Firebirds following Game 3, the stakes are growing for both fan bases.
"The Firebirds are coming for blood and they're coming to get revenge and I think they're gonna be able to pull it off," said Mike Olson, a Coachella Valley Firebirds fan from Corona, California.
"We cannot believe that this happened again but how special is that two years in a row, same team. We got this," said Wendy Wolpert, who traveled with her husband Cole from Carlisle, Cumberland County to Palm Desert for Game 3.
However, despite how badly Firebirds fans want to take a bite out of the Bears, they know the type of storied franchise they are going up against and the dedicated fan base it brings.
"It was 100 years worth of history some kind of ghosts must have pushed that puck in [for last year's game-winning goal], over our Firebirds," said Coachella Valley Firebirds fan Joseph Wolensky. "The experience we felt this year is real fun, real fast, real aggressive and they had a goal and hopefully we're gonna fulfill the full goal at the end of this series."
It's the old versus the new, a fan base that has built something special versus a fan base that is writing a new chapter in its history books.
"It's hard to beat history you don't just grow up and you know Hershey and not know about Hershey bears and the history so we're building our history," said Wolensky.
The 2024 Calder Cup Finals continue for Game 4 on Thursday, June 20.