Bears Pick Up Point in Ninth Straight Game in 4-3 Shootout Loss to Penguins

January 23, 2026

The Hershey Bears (18-14-4-2) continued to pick up points in the standings and played beyond regulation for a franchise record-setting sixth consecutive game, but ultimately came up short in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (27-11-2-2) on Friday night at GIANT Center.

Hershey's record in the season series dropped to 1-4-0-1. The two teams will resume their season series with a home-and-home set in early February.

The Bears extended their season-high point streak to nine games (4-0-3-2) and seven games on home ice (3-0-3-1). Hershey's overall nine-game point streak is the club's longest stretch of accruing points in consecutive games since achieving the same feat three separate times during the 2023-24 campaign.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Ilya Protas tallied the game's opening goal - and his team-leading 16th of the season - just 43 seconds into the contest with Hershey on the man advantage. Louie Belpedio and Bogdan Trineyev received assists on the goal. Protas extended his current point streak to six games (3g, 3a).
• The Penguins took a 2-1 lead by the intermission with goals from Owen Pickering and Ville Koivunen, with Rutger McGroarty earning an assist on both tallies for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
• Grant Cruikshank leveled the score at 2-2 just 41 seconds into the middle frame with an unassisted shorthanded goal for his sixth strike of the season and his team-leading third shorthanded goal of the campaign.
• Andrew Cristall gave Hershey a 3-2 lead at 8:30 when he buried a rebound off a shot from Trineyev for his eighth of the season. Jon McDonald earned a secondary helper on the goal.
• McGroarty earned his third assist of the night for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on his team's third goal of the game, which came off the stick of Avery Hayes at 17:43 of the third period to tie the score at 3-3 while goaltender Sergei Murashov was pulled for an extra attacker.
• Each team managed three shots apiece in the overtime period, and in the shootout, Hershey elected to shoot first. All three of the shooters for the Bears failed to score, as Koivunen's marker in the bottom of the opening round ended up as the deciding factor; Koivunen finished the night with a goal and assist in regulation, in addition to the shootout-winner.
• As a result of playing a contest beyond regulation for a sixth consecutive game, the Bears eclipsed their previous franchise mark, after previously going 2-0-2-1 from Oct. 23-Nov. 5, 2021. Hershey also played its fourth consecutive home game requiring overtime, matching a club record originally set from Dec. 15-26, 2001 (2-0-2).
• Defenseman Reilly Webb made his American Hockey League debut for Hershey.

SHOTS: HER 30, WBS 32

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 28-for-31; WBS - Sergei Murashov, 27-for-30

POWER PLAY: HER - 1-for-3; WBS - 0-for-2

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on how the team's play tonight had demonstrated improvement despite only earning one point:
"Yeah, it was good. I obviously you'd like to get the two points and I thought we could have - just these 6-on-5s, we've got to learn how to shut them down and get an empty-net goal and take the two-goal lead and take a deep breath. But we seem to be under pressure sometimes like that and we've got to work on it."

King on the play of the team's fourth line and the team's overall offensive play tonight:
"That line, the so-called fourth line, where sometimes they're our best line some nights, but they bring energy, they finish their checks, they play the game the right way. That's all we can ask for. They get caught out there the odd time and there's maybe a goal [against], but it's not always their fault. And then our offense, we're creating a lot more - we just can't put the puck in the net. With the amount of options we have offensively, we should be scoring more than three goals. But we're getting points, which are big right now, and we'll just have to really dial it in."

King on what he wants to see from this group to demonstrate growth as a unit to indicate it is ready for the latter parts of the regular season and beyond:
"It's helping each other out in a game as five. I tell these guys, when you get over the boards, the game is on the line every time you step on the ice. But you have to do it as five. You can't do it as four or three, or one guy playing well and the other four not. We need to continue to push that on them, get that in their brains that when you hop on the ice, it's a five-man unit and you have to be connected. And most nights, yeah, we're pretty connected, but then there's those young mistakes or the we're-not-connected kind of situations, and this is what costs us."

(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, Jan. 24, at 7:05 p.m. Hershey returns home to host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Women in Sports Night. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.