Rochester Americans vs Hershey Bears AHL Playoffs: Where & how to watch, prediction - 2nd June 2023

Game 6 of the AHL's Conference Finals between the Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears is scheduled for Friday. The winner of the series faces the winner of the Coachella Valley Firebirds versus the Milwaukee Admirals.

The Americans extended the series to six games with a 4-1 win on the road on Wednesday.

Game 6 goes down on Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET.

How to watch Rochester Americans vs Hershey Bears

Every AHL game, including the Calder Cup playoffs, can be seen live on AHLTV at watchtheahl.com.

The Rochester Americans are back at home and are looking to extend the series to seven games. The Americans are the Buffalo Sabres affiliate and have plenty of top prospects on their team leading their way.

Hershey, meanwhile, is the longest-running AHL team and is the affiliate of the Washington Capitals.

Although the Americans were down 3-1 in the series and need to win three in a row, the team has confidence they can rally to win the series.

“It’s what I expected,” Amerks head coach Seth Appert said of Rochester’s Game 5 win in Hershey on Wednesday night. “This group, as I’ve said many times, has been through a lot together and they love playing for each other...

When your back’s against the wall people think you’re done, most people don’t have that belief in you. But you do, inside each other. And you’re playing with a group of guys you love.”

Rochester also says they learned what mistakes they have made in this series and feel like they corrected them in Game 5.

“We learned from our mistakes in Game 4,” Appert noted of the third period. He’s been saying it all postseason: the team needs to learn and get better every single day.

The lesson the last 10 minutes of Game 4 was we were not assertive in our positional play, in how aggressive we played, and in our voice. When you’re in big moments and you’re quiet, it feels very lonely. When you’re in big moments and you’re loud, you feel connected.”

X-Factor: Hunter Shepard has been one of the best goalies in the AHL but he did not play to his best in Game 5 for the Hershey Bears. This was why Rochester was able to score 4 and get the Game 5 win.

If the Bears are going to eliminate the Americans on Friday, Shepard will need to get back to how he has played these playoffs where he has a 2.01 GAA and a .924 SV%, if Hershey is going to win.

Americans vs Bears predictions

The Rochester Americans arguably played the best game of their series in Game 5 but I expect Hershey to come out strong in Game 6. Shepard is a solid goalie and I doubt he will struggle in back-to-back games. Malcolm Subban, meanwhile, will need to have another strong game, but this Bears offense is solid.

I do expect this game to be very competitive but Hershey will eliminate Rochester and advance to the Calder Cup final.

Hershey Bears 3, Rochester Americans 2