A lot of the tumblers have to fall into place to win any sort of championship.

Winning two straight titles in the minor leagues, where player movement is a constant? Downright difficult.

These Hershey Bears, though. They have a pretty good shot at it. Solid goaltending, scoring depth and 11 players who went through the Calder Cup-winning experience a year ago make Hershey a good bet to repeat. That, and the fact that they are coming off a 51-win, 114-point regular season (both team records).

Tonight, the Bears start down a road that they hope ends with a second Calder Cup in as many seasons. First task is to exterminate the Rats, the Albany River Rats, that is.

Game 1 of the best-of-seven series is set for 7 at Giant Center. Game 2 is 7 p.m. Thursday.

On the surface, the Rats — returning to the playoffs after an AHL record seven-season absence — would appear to be pushovers, since Hershey defeated them in seven of eight regular-season meetings. Plus the Bears are the No. 1 seed in the East Division, playing No. 4 Albany.

But as you might expect, Hershey's players and coach are tossing aside the recent past.

"The veterans on the team made it pretty clear that what you do in the regular season is pretty much done with," said Hershey forward Dave Steckel, following practice Tuesday. "It's great to finish first and great to set records but now everybody has zero games played and zero wins."

Steckel's teammate Alexandre Giroux took the thought another step.

"Look at the NHL playoffs," he said. "You can't tell who the top seeds or the lower seeds are. I don't think the difference in the points in the standings matters at all."

Certainly doesn't matter to Bruce Boudreau, who went into specifics about why the season series seemed lopsided, yet the playoff series won't be.

"Albany played without (Keith) Aucoin (the team's leading scorer) the first four times," he said. "The first time he gets in the lineup, he gets two assists and they win 3-1. The next time, it was Albany's third game in three nights and they traveled from Norfolk, so, that can be wearing.

"We know they have the best possible lineup they can have now."

Aucoin finished second in the league in assists with 72 and recorded a team-high 99 points. He is among four River Rats with 20-plus goals on the season. The others are Ryan Bayda (team-high 29 goals), Matt Murley and Shane Willis.

Hershey counters with Giroux, whose 42 goals were second in the league behind Brett Sterling (55) of the Chicago Wolves. Sterling, however, played 10 more games.

Giroux is one of seven Bears with 20-plus goals this season, although one of them, Eric Fehr, is sidelined with a back ailment. Still, that's surprising scoring depth for a minor-league team.

That depth makes this postseason's edition of the Bears different — better? — than last year's.

"I think this is a more naturally-skilled lineup," Boudreau said. "We had a lot of real grinders last year. Gordon Mink, Boyd Gordon, Boyd Kane, Colin Forbes, those are big strong-bodied guys. Now, we're more of a skilled team that can hurt the opposition if they make a mistake."

Hershey also has Frederic Cassivi, a seasoned goaltender. Cassivi (22-10-5, 2.36 GAA) beat the River Rats twice during the regular season but suffered a broken collarbone in Albany Dec. 20 and missed 43 days. Ironically, he may be more rested now, due to the time off.

Tyler Weiman (27-22-3, 2.94) is likely to be Albany's starting goalie.

"We want to rekindle memories," said Boudreau, on the subject of winning another Calder Cup. "I believe that for most of the players and certainly for me, last year was the greatest time of our lives. We know that if we win, we can duplicate those things. It's difficult but that's the goal."

Notes: Boudreau said that F Jakub Klepis was questionable for tonight's game, having been "dinged up" against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last Friday. Boudreau said D Tyler Sloan is out with an undisclosed injury.

E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com