For the third time in history, the Hershey Bears and a franchise from Cleveland, Ohio — this time, the Lake Erie Monsters — will do battle for the Calder Cup. The previous two times (1940-41, 1944-45), the Cleveland Barons defeated the Chocolate and White. The Bears hold 11 Calder Cups to their name in the 79 previous seasons of the AHL; the Barons won nine before the franchise met an end in 1973.
In 1972, the Barons had new neighbors courtesy of the World Hockey Association, the Cleveland Crusaders. They immediately destroyed the market for minor league hockey and forced a mid-season relocation to Jacksonville, Florida.