Bears Drop 3-2 OT Decision to Wolf Pack

January 14, 2026

David Gucciardi and Andrew Cristall scored for the Hershey Bears (17-14-3-0) to stake their team to a 2-0 lead, but the Bears ultimately fell in overtime for the second straight game by a 3-2 score to the Hartford Wolf Pack (13-17-4-1) on Wednesday night at GIANT Center in the first meeting of the season between the two clubs.

The overtime point extended Hershey's home point streak to five games (3-0-2-0). The two teams will face each other at GIANT Center again next Tuesday after Hershey returns from a two-game road trip at Charlotte.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Hershey opened the scoring with 10 seconds remaining in the first period when David Gucciardi tallied his second goal of the season with a screened shot from the blue line from Ilya Protas and Andrew Cristall.
• Cristall made it 2-0 at 4:02 of the second period with his sixth of the season from Bogdan Trineyev and Corey Schueneman. Cristall's goal marked his second point of the night and moved him into sole possession of the team scoring lead with 28 points on the season.
• Hartford then scored twice to tie the game, as Dylan Roobroeck (11:54) and Brett Berard (14:16) buried goals to have the game knotted by the intermission.
• Bears captain Aaron Ness sat out of the game, reducing the number of players who have appeared in every game so far for the Bears this season to Cristall and Protas.
• Bears forward Henrk Rybinski left the game at 12:04 of the third period after sustaining an upper-body injury.
• Hershey did not have a power play during the game for the second time this season, and the first since Oct. 18 vs. Springfield.

SHOTS: HER 25, HFD 34

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 31-for-34; HFD - Callum Tung, 23-for-25

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-0; HFD - 0-for-1

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King's initial reaction following tonight's loss:
"I didn't like my team tonight. We played solid hockey for 10 minutes of the second period and we were all over them. We had a fragile team on the ropes. They had nothing going, and then we just backed off. And then we just, we did not play. We stood still, we slapped pucks away, we didn't break out clean, we were not good."

King on whether he had any premonition of the team's eventual play tonight:
"Well, it just ended that way. Going into the game, I thought we were tired last weekend there, and so I didn't push them hard. They had a day off, and then we just had a nice, light practice, worked on some power play stuff, and I thought, okay, hopefully that gets them refreshed for the upcoming games, because we're going to get busy now and [it] kind of backfired on me. But that won't happen again."

King on his disappointment at the team's effort tonight as the midway point of the season approaches:
"Yeah, they weren't moving. Their brains were shut off. And like I said, the 10 minutes of the second period was good hockey. We were jumping, we were on the forecheck, we were holding on to pucks, we were low to high, we were getting bodies to the net, we were putting pucks to the net, and it worked. And then they decided that it's not going to work anymore, so they'll just stop skating and turn pucks over. And we had - not everybody - probably half the team worked and the other half were just, I don't know what their problem was, but I'll figure it out."

(Answers edited for clarity)

The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 4 p.m. at Bojangles Coliseum. Hershey returns home to host the Hartford Wolf Pack on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Taco Tuesday, featuring a specialty taco offering at select locations on the concourse, paired with $5 Coronas. The game will also serve as a Hersheypark Pass Night. All fans will receive a 2026 Hersheypark Ticket, valid for one-day admission through June 30, 2026. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.