Bears Survive Hog-Wild 5-4 Win Over IceHogs

January 3, 2026

Aaron Ness had a two-point night, including the game-winning tally, and the Hershey Bears (15-14-1-0) opened 2026 with a back-and-forth 5-4 victory over the Rockford IceHogs (13-17-2-1) on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

The win snapped Hershey's four-game losing streak and gave the Bears the opening victory in a four-game season series with Rockford, which Hershey last faced in the 2018-19 season. The Bears host Rockford again on Sunday, Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. before concluding the season series with a pair of games in Illinois in February.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Henrik Rybinski gave Hershey an initial 1-0 lead with a shorthanded marker at 2:10 of the first period, collecting his fourth goal of the season from Bogdan Trineyev and Aaron Ness.
• The IceHogs then went on a three-goal run, as Dominic Toninato scored at 4:34, Jamie Englebert scored 19 seconds into the middle frame, and Dmitry Kuzmin added to the Rockford lead at 6:50.
• Ilya Protas brought an end to Rockford's scoring binge with a power-play goal at 10:41 from Andrew Cristall and Louie Belpedio, giving Protas his 13th of the season.
• Rockford responded with a power-play goal from Brett Seney at 16:22, before Brett Leason brought Hershey back to within a goal with his sixth of the season at 18:51 from Rybinski.
• Cam Allen tied the game at 4-4 with a power-play goal at 1:20 of the third period for his second of the season, from Spencer Smallman and Cristall.
• Ness put Hershey back in front with his first of the season at 8:10 from Corey Schueneman and Cristall. The goal marked Ness' 11th career game-winner with Hershey.
• The game marked the first for Bears head coach Derek King against the IceHogs, where he served as an assistant coach from the 2016-17 season before earning a promotion as the organization's head coach during the 2018-19 campaign, remaining in that role until his promotion to Rockford's NHL affiliate, the Chicago Blackhawks, in 2021-22.

SHOTS: HER 23, RFD 27

GOALTENDING: HER - Mitch Gibson, 23-for-27; RFD - Drew Commesso, 18-for-23

POWER PLAY: HER - 2-for-5; RFD- 1-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on his satisfaction with the win and ending a four-game losing skid:
"You know, I like how we stuck with it. It wasn't pretty, and we talked about that before the game and the players talked about it. We're going to need a greasy win somehow and we did. We got that today. [...] We needed it. We've been playing well enough. Just not getting over the hump, not getting the goals when we needed them. And tonight we got the goals when we needed them and we got the goaltending too."

King on the performance of Aaron Ness:
"Yeah, [his first goal of the season] was huge for him. He's the heart and soul. He works hard. He does everything for the team, sacrifices, and it was good to see him get rewarded."

King on the likelihood of Matt Strome returning to the lineup this weekend after missing the last 14 games since sustaining a lower-body injury at Cleveland on Nov. 22: 
"We'll have to talk with the rest of the staff and just see what we need to do - do we need to shake the lines up or not or get a fresh body in there, but he's ready to go. It's just whether I want to give him another week or get him [in] right away."

Aaron Ness on the mood in the room after getting the win tonight:
"It's funny. We've thought for the most part we were only playing two periods the last handful of games and things weren't going our way. The emphasis tonight was to get a good start, that had been kind of bothering us and affecting us throughout the games here the last stretch. Just tried to get a good start and go from there, and like you said, a lot of ups and downs. That's part of the game; [there was] a lot of fight from our group, which is cool to see."

Ness on his leading by example with his performance in the third period and absorbing several hits and receiving praise from King:
"I think it's really hard to win in this league. It takes every second of every shift. Kinger's big on that - once your foot steps over the boards, you need to dial in. So just trying to focus on that and try to do everything it takes to win a game. I think you saw that for the most part from our group for most of the game tonight."

(Answers edited for clarity)

The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host their world-famous GIANT Teddy Bear Toss against the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday, Jan. 4, at 3 p.m. at GIANT Center. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.