Bears Suffer Setback in 6-3 Loss to Senators

March 14, 2026

The Hershey Bears (27-24-6-2) dropped a 6-3 decision to the Belleville Senators (23-28-8-0) on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

Hershey's record against Belleville in the season series is now 1-2-0-0. The two teams conclude their series tomorrow in Hershey.

Hershey's Magic Number to clinch a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs remains at 21.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Ilya Protas gave Hershey the game's first lead when he tapped his team-leading 25th of the season past Mads Søgaard at 2:49 of the first period, with assists to Bogdan Trineyev and Louie Belpedio. Protas' goal allowed him to reach the 50-point mark (25g, 25a), the first Bears rookie to do so since Riley Barber (55) and Travis Boyd (53) accomplished the feat during the 2015-16 season.
• Djibril Touré tied the game at 17:43, with an assist from former Bear Graeme Clarke, acquired by the Ottawa-Belleville organization the previous weekend from Washington-Hershey in exchange for Wyatt Bongiovanni.
• Bongiovanni, making his home debut with the Bears, put Hershey up 2-1 at 3:12 of the second period with his first as a Bear and his 13th of the season from Sam Bitten and David Gucciardi.
• The Senators quickly responded at 4:21 with a goal from Mark Duarte to tie the score at 2-2, and took a 3-2 lead at 10:12 on a goal from Xavier Bourgault. Clarke then netted a power-play goal at 15:10 which eventually stood up as the game-winner.
• Trineyev pulled Hershey back to within a goal with a power-play tally at 10:13 of the third period, but Hayden Hodgson restored the visitors' two-goal edge at 14:23, and Keean Washkurak sealed the contest with an empty-netter at 17:51.

SHOTS: HER 18, BEL 30

GOALTENDING: HER - Mitch Gibson, 24-for-29; BEL - Mads Søgaard, 15-for-18

POWER PLAY: HER - 1-for-3; BEL - 1-for-3

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on tonight's loss contrasted with the high of winning the night before at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton:
"Well, I'm going to use the old minor hockey 24-hour rule of talking to the coach as a parent, but embarrassing, embarrassing, and embarrassing. We took that team too lightly. That's a good hockey team over there. Their record doesn't show it. They out-skated us, outworked us, they out-physically played us, and we just stood there and watched them do it in our building."

King on the line combo of Bitten-Bongiovanni-Bohlsen and on Bongiovanni and Clarke performing tonight after being traded for each other:
"I'd like to keep that combination, but I had to mess it around because our top players were terrible - the no-shows, which was embarrassing. Clarkey, happy for him, but nobody touched him. Nobody laid a finger on him. We gave him all kinds of ice. He looked like Wayne Gretzky out there. So if you give that kid time and space and a chance to shoot a puck, he's going to score goals. And we just left him alone."

King on what happened in the second period that led from Hershey holding a 2-1 lead to trailing 4-2 by the end of the frame:
"Well, our 'D' were fine. Our forwards kept turning the puck over, and our top guys were trying to make plays which weren't there and they weren't making the plays. When you're playing a game and you're coming off a high from a road game and you come back into our building, you've got to keep it simple. You've got to lay pucks behind them. We talked about it in the pre-scout and they didn't follow the rules. They didn't follow our structure. They turned pucks over, our 'D' had no gap, and then we ended up spending a lot of time in our zone."

(Answers edited for clarity)

The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host the Belleville Senators on Sunday, March 15 at 5 p.m. at GIANT Center for the team's final Washington Capitals Night of the 2025-26 season, featuring postgame Screaming Bear jersey auction. All fans in attendance will receive a Bears rally towel, courtesy of Eagle Excavating, GIANT, Elizabethtown College, MI Windows, Members 1st, Hollywood Casino, and Tyson. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.