Bears Open Road Trip with 4-3 Win Over Crunch

March 27, 2026

The Hershey Bears (28-26-6-3) raced out to a 3-0 lead and held on for an eventual 4-3 win over the Syracuse Crunch (38-20-3-2) on Friday night at Upstate Medical University Arena. The win snapped a four-game winless skid as the Bears opened up a season-high eight-game road trip.

Hershey finished its season series with Syracuse with a record of 2-1-1-0, in which the road team won every game.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Hershey established a 3-0 lead in the second period thanks to goals from Wyatt Bongiovanni (7:16), Andrew Cristall (9:33), and a shorthanded marker from Brett Leason (10:45). Leason's goal marked Hershey's 10th shorthanded goal of the season, marking the third time in the past five seasons that the Bears had reached double digits for shorthanded goals in a campaign.
• The Crunch responded with a pair of goals from Dylan Duke (a power-play tally) and Conor Geekie to cut Hershey's lead to 3-2 by the end of the middle frame, with Jakob Pelletier (the AHL's leading scorer) assisting on both strikes.
• Ilya Protas collected the primary assist on Cristall's goal, extending his point streak to six games (4g, 5a).
• Alex Suzdalev netted what would be the eventual game-winner for Hershey at 6:35 of the third period, collecting his eighth of the season. Forward Kyler Kupka (recalled Tuesday from South Carolina of the ECHL and playing in his third game with Hershey and his first since Dec. 10 vs. Providence) assisted on the goal.
• Matthew Peca trimmed Hershey's lead back to a goal at 15:57 to close out the scoring.
• Goaltender Mitch Gibson made 32 saves in recording his eighth win of the season.
• Hershey's Magic Number to clinch a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs was reduced to 14 with the win.

SHOTS: HER 24, SYR 35

GOALTENDING: HER - Mitch Gibson, 32-for-35; SYR - Brandon Halverson, 20-for-24

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-1; SYR - 1-for-6

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on what led to tonight's victory:
"Well our goalie made some big saves for us and we got goals from guys at key moments. I thought our PK was really good. I liked our effort, sometimes you can see the difference in teams - how good they are, when they want to rev it up, but we held our ground and got two points, and we'll run with it."

King on the play of Kyler Kupka that led to Alex Suzdalev's game-winning goal:
"He was patient. He just didn't whip it around or hold - he read it. I liked Suzdalev coming in like that - he waited, he waited, and then he made his move, and hopefully he was getting the puck, and when he's getting the puck in places like that, he's scoring goals. [Kupka's] face-offs were good, he's smart, he plays a 200-foot game; I like his poise out there."

King on how he wants his players to deal with opposing players who are playing an antagonizing role against Hershey as seen in the second period:
"It depends on the score. We were up 3-0 at the time, and I knew what they were trying to do. I think the refs could've called it right off the face-off, two of them each for roughing and avoided all of the shenanigans, but we held our own; I liked it - we stuck up for each other, and it was a good time for us to kill some penalties."

King on Brett Leason dropping the gloves with Matteo Pietroniro in the third period:
"When he gets a little angry, he's a big man, I think he was a little upset at what was going on, and good for him showing some emotion."

Kyler Kupka on the play he was involved in that led to the game-winning goal and how the mood is in the locker room:
"Someone chipped it out of the neutral zone, it was a 50-50 puck race, I ended up with the puck, and Suzy made a great play finding open ice, so it made it easy on me to find him. Ever since I got here the energy has been great, we were just looking to get past that tough stretch, and we're excited for the games ahead, looking to make that push."

(Answers edited for clarity)

The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday, March 28 at 7:05 p.m. at PPL Center. Hershey returns home to host the Bridgeport Islanders on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Racing Night and Toyota License Plate Night, featuring a Bears license plate giveaway to the first 6,000 fans in attendance, courtesy of Toyota. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.