Bears Survive Wild Finish to for 4-3 Win Over Phantoms

November 15, 2025

The Hershey Bears (8-4-1-0) overcame the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9-4-0-1) erasing their 3-1 lead in the third period when Matt Strome deflected his second goal of the evening past Carson Bjarnason with seconds remaining to give Hershey a 4-3 victory on Saturday night at PPL Center. The triumph gave Hershey its third consecutive win and its fifth consecutive road victory.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Matt Strome opened the scoring with his fourth of the season for Hershey at 12:57 of the second period from Corey Schueneman and Ilya Protas.
• Bogdan Trineyev made it 2-0 at 17:38 just before the expiration of the first power play of the night for the Bears, burying his fourth of the season past Carson Bjarnason from Andrew Cristall and Garin Bjorklund; the assist for Bjorklund marked his first career AHL point.
• After Lehigh Valley got on the board with a goal from Denver Barkey at 4:44 of the third period, Protas restored the two-goal edge with his fourth of the season at 9:52 from Trineyev and Louie Belpedio; Protas' two-point performance marked his team-leading fourth multi-point game of the season.
• The Phantoms leveled the score with a pair of power-play goals, as Cooper Marody (11:47) and Lane Pederson (14:58).
• Strome netted the game-winner at 19:47, redirecting Brett Leason's shot for his second of the night. Strome's performance tonight marked his third career multi-goal game. Leason's assist marked his first point of the season.
• Garin Bjorklund earned his sixth win of the season by making an AHL career-high 38 saves on a career-high 41 shots, which also represented a season-high for Hershey.

SHOTS: HER 20, LV 41

GOALTENDING: HER - Garin Bjorklund, 38-for-41; LV - Carson Bjarnason, 16-for-20

POWER PLAY: HER - 1-for-2; LV - 2-for-5

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on his level of satisfaction with tonight's result, what led to Lehigh Valley getting back into the game, and the play of Garin Bjorklund:
"The two points is great, but I'm not happy with the way we performed. If that's the way we're going to perform every night, we've got a lot of learning [to do]. We've got some young guys that are just not ready to play in these types of games yet. [...] They started coming on us hard and pressuring us. And we couldn't handle it, we couldn't sustain it. And we were just coughing pucks up, shot two into the crowd. We're holding guys, we weren't moving our feet, we looked tired. I know you're on the road, you're on the bus, but these are the games these kids have to learn how to play. [...] Hats off to our goalie. And like I said [in the locker room] after the game, they better be putting some money together to buy him some wine, or a meal, or something, because our goalies have been outstanding."

Matt Strome on the team escaping with the win and Garin Bjorklund stepping up:
"There's definitely a lot of things we can do better. In this league, getting two points is getting two points. Sometimes they're not the prettiest. But 'G' played unbelievable in there. I think he had, what, 38 saves, something like that - it's not good enough from us to play [that way] in front of him. But at the end of the day, we got the win and we move on to tomorrow."

Ilya Protas on the team's play and his line's performance:
"It was a kind of crazy game. We had the lead, they got back, and we kind of took unnecessary penalties - I think it was a fun game to watch for fans. But on our point, I think we need to be better as a team, and we've got to clean up stuff. [...] I think our line did a great job overall, and we've just got to continue to play our game, keep it simple, and I think we'll keep being successful."

The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they return home to host the Phantoms on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. at GIANT Center for their first Washington Capitals Night of the season, celebrating 20 continuous seasons of partnership with their NHL affiliate. Sunday's game is also the first Hersheypark Pass Night of the campaign - all fans in attendance will receive a 2026 Hersheypark Ticket, valid for one-day admission through June 30, 2026. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets for this game.