Bears Drop Game 1 to Penguins in 4-2 Decision

April 30, 2026

The Hershey Bears (2-1) opened their best-of-five Atlantic Division Semifinals series with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (1-0) with a 4-2 loss in Game 1 on Thursday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• The Penguins struck first at 3:01 of the first period on an Atley Calvert goal.
• Aidan McDonough extended the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lead to 2-0 at 5:17 of the second period; Owen Pickering added a power-play goal at 9:52 to widen the lead to 3-0.
• Ilya Protas got Hershey on the board with his second of the postseason at 10:48.
• Henrik Rybinski then tallied his first of the postseason at 1:09 of the third to trim the deficit to a goal; he initially appeared to tie the game at 4:14 after knocking in Brett Leason's shot which had struck the post, but the play was immediately washed out by the official as Rybinski had directed the puck into the net with his glove.
• Avery Hayes sealed the game for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with an empty-net goal at 19:05.
• Bears forward Milton Gästrin made his American Hockey League debut, skating on a line with Wyatt Bongiovanni and Brett Leason; defender Leon Muggli made his Calder Cup Playoffs debut and earned the secondary assist on Rybinski's goal.

SHOTS: HER 33, WBS 31

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 27-for-30; WBS - Sergei Murashov, 31-for-33

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-2; WBS - 1-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on how he felt his team performed in the opening game of this playoff series:
"Well, I think we battled hard. I thought it was a good hockey game. Could some calls have gone our way? Sure, they could have, but I'm not going to complain about the refs. I've got to be a better person, I was told, so I'm going to be calm right now about it. But I like the way we competed, we battled, you know, the old 'too dumb to quit,' right? We didn't stop. So those guys, I think they believe it and we believe it, you know, we can stay with them for a whole three periods and we'll give them a good game Saturday."

King on managing a team with younger players responsible for generating a bulk of the offense:
"Yeah, it's not always easy. You've got to have your - obviously our young guys are the guys that are putting up the points, but I don't want to tire them out. It's a long series, so you've got to count on that. The Bittens, Cruikshanks, Stromes to give you some shifts - which they did - and then Leason and his line were alright. Milton, he showed alright, so no complaints there. I think we battled, we played well, all four  lines. We've just got to figure out a way to beat [Murashov]."

King on the physicality of the game:
"It's fine, like it was good. I didn't like the mauling of [Cristall] there and the rabbit punch when he went down and then the three or four cross checks and there's no extra call, but I'm not a referee, so they've got a hard job to do."

Henrik Rybinski on the level of physicality:
"It's playoff hockey, so each team is excited to get out there and playoff hockey is always physical, so we've just got to use that physicality to provide energy and just keep it going for Game 2."

Rybinski on the potential tying play minutes after he had scored to pull Hershey to within a goal:
"We just kind of knew that had four guys caught, and [Louie Belpedio] had full possession of the puck and so he ripped it. I don't know what it hit, but it went off something and it just landed there and [Leason] went off the crossbar and it kind of went off me in a weird way. So unfortunate, but yeah, pretty close to being tied. [...] I think it was a coin flip. I think we had chances, and if we're putting those chances in, that could be the difference in the game, so we're just going to have the same mindset going into Game 2."

(Answers edited for clarity)

The Bears continue the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs when they take the ice against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for Game 2 of the Atlantic Division Semifinals on Saturday, May 2, at 6:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza. Hershey hosts Game 3 of the best-of-five series on Tuesday, May 5, at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.