This past weekend, the San Jose Barracuda skated in Cleveland against the Cleveland Monsters for the first time ever. As the American Hockey League (AHL) does not participate in cross-conference play prior to the Calder Cup Finals, this was also the first time the franchises have faced off at all; prior to the 2015-2016 season, the San Jose Barracuda played in the Eastern Conference as the Worcester Sharks, while the Cleveland Monsters played in the Western Conference as the Lake Erie Monsters.
The City of Cleveland is inextricably (albeit explicably) linked to Bay Area hockey. In 1976, the Oakland Seals of the NHL were relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area to Cleveland as the Cleveland Barons (named after a recently folded AHL team that had a decades-old presence in Believeland).