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The Coachella Valley Firebirds remained undefeated at home during the 2024 Calder Cup playoffs after defeating the Hershey Bears 6-2 in Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals on Tuesday.
Coming into the matchup, the Bears knew to expect a rowdy crowd at Acrisure Arena and the Coachella Valley to pick up the pace and come in waves. The first 10 minutes of the game were crucial, but instead of weathering the storm, the Bears committed a rare and seemingly unheard of rules violation that essentially gave the Firebirds a lead early in the first period.
The Bears found themselves in trouble when a penalty was called from the bench 30 seconds into the first period. Coachella Valley coaches could be seen conferring with referees before the second faceoff of the game. Hershey was then penalized for an “incorrect starting lineup.”
According to the game sheet:
00:30 Hershey Bears bench, served by Ethen Frank Incorrect starting lineup – Minor bench, 2 min PP
Max McCormick would score his first of three goals of the game on the resulting power play to give the Firebirds a 1-0 lead 2:20 into the first.
According to the AHL Game Report (starters’ names in bold), the starting lineup announced by the Bears before the game was:
But when the faceoff actually happened, Bogdan Trineyev was on the ice in place of Rybinski, who has been centering the third line for the last two games with Garrett Roe out due to injury.
The AHL rule book states that a penalty for an incorrect starting lineup will only be assessed if the opposing team notices and appeals to the officials on the ice.
Rule 7 – Starting lineup
7.1 Starting lineup — Before the start of the game, at the request of the Referee, the Manager or Coach of the visiting team must name the starting lineup to the Referee or Official Scorer.
Before the start of the match, the manager or coach of the home team, having been informed by the official scorer of the names of the visiting team’s starting lineup, will name the home team’s surprising lineup. This information will be transmitted by the Official Scorekeeper to the Coach of the visiting team.
No changes are permitted to either team’s starting lineup, as given to them by the Official Scorer, or to the on-ice playing lineup, unless reviewed and approved by the Referee prior to the start of the game.
7.2 Violation — For a violation of this rule, a minor bench penalty will be assessed to the offending team. This is an appeal play and must be communicated to the referee before the second faceoff of the game. There will be no sanction for the requesting team if its appeal is not sustained. The determining factor is the name of the player and not necessarily the player number, it must be correctly registered by the team.
In the event that a team scores in the first turn of the game and the opposing team informs the referee that the scoring team did not have the correct starting lineup on the ice, the goal will be allowed and a minor bench penalty will be imposed on the offending team for having an inadequate surprising lineup. If the team that scores a goal in the first turn of the game challenges the opposing team’s surprising lineup and the opposing team did not have the correct starting lineup, the scoring of the goal will nullify the bench’s minor foul and no more. sanctions would be evaluated.
Coachella Valley’s coaching staff, led by Dan Bylsma, noticed the Bears’ booing. Heads-up helped the Firebirds get on the board first in the game and they ultimately won 6-2.
“I’m the head coach, I take full responsibility,” Todd Nelson said after the game. “That’s all I have to say about it.”
“It’s unfortunate,” added Bears captain Dylan McIlrath. “To be honest, I thought we were okay in the first one. Yes, we caught them early. I thought our competition, everything we talked about before the game, we tried to achieve. Obviously, his building was shaking. When their fans get an early goal, their fans have fun. “I thought we weathered it as best we could and I thought our first one was solid.”
Starting lineup sanctions may be rare at the professional level, but the Bears aren’t the first high-profile team to be caught up in a mix-up. The St. Louis Blues received a similar penalty in December 2022 when then-head coach Craig Berube played Brayden Schenn instead of Brandon Saad to start a game against the Edmonton Oilers. Jay Woodcroft, the Oilers’ head coach at the time, called the referees to give Edmonton a power play, which led to a goal by Zach Hyman.
The penalty is also not entirely unknown at the AHL level. During FOX43’s broadcast of the game, former Bears voice John Walton shared that Bruce Boudreau was whistled once for a lineup violation during his tenure at Hershey as head coach. Analyst Garrett Mitchell added that during his playing days in the AHL, teams would sometimes come out with the wrong player for the starting lineup, but rarely did an opposing coach notice or appeal to officials.
But with the Firebirds looking to win the franchise’s first Calder Cup and beat the league’s best team in the regular season, they continue to look for any advantage they can get and it finally paid off.
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