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CLEVELAND (AP) — Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 1.9 seconds left in the first overtime and the Lake Erie Monsters won their first Calder Cup title, beating the Hershey Bears 1-0 on Saturday night to sweep the American Hockey League championship series.
Anton Forsberg made 23 saves for Lake Erie, the Columbus Blue Jackets' top farm club.
Lake Erie was 15-2 in the playoffs, the best record for a team in a four rounds. The Monsters gave Cleveland its first AHL title since the Barons won the last of their nine championships in 1964.
"We have a real talented group, probably the most talented group in the whole league," Forsberg said. "It's a young group, so you never know what you're going to get because it takes some time to get into everything.
"I feel like after Christmas, maybe after the All-Star break, we started playing well. We just kept going like that."
The crowd of 19,665 at Quicken Loans Arena was the largest ever for a professional hockey game in Ohio and the second-largest postseason crowd in AHL history.
Bjorkstrand received the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the MVP in the playoffs. He had 10 goals and six assists in 17 games, tied an AHL record with six winning goals and set a record with three overtime goals. Forsberg was 9-0 with a 1.34 goals-against average.
Justin Peters stopped 32 shots for Hershey, the Washington Capitals' top affiliate.
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