Bears Topped by Senators 5-2 in Weekend Sweep

March 15, 2026

The Hershey Bears (27-25-6-2) fell by a 5-2 decision to the Belleville Senators (24-28-8-0) on Sunday evening at GIANT Center. Hershey concluded its season series against Belleville with a record of 1-3-0-0.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Graeme Clarke struck first for the Senators with four seconds remaining in a 5-on-3 man advantage for the visitors to give Belleville a 1-0 lead at 15:02 of the first period.
• Olle Lycksell scored at 18:07 to give Belleville a 2-0 lead.
• Sonny Milano netted his third of the season at 4:10 of the second from Matt Strome and Bogdan Trineyev.
• Xavier Bourgault scored during a 4-on-4 sequence at 8:34 to restore the two-goal edge. Landen Hookey and Tomas Hamara added goals for Belleville to open up a 5-1 lead before the end of the period.
• Alex Suzdalev tallied his seventh of the season for Hershey at 13:27 of the third period to close out the scoring.
• Ilya Protas missed today's game with a lower-body injury, leaving Andrew Cristall as the only remaining player on the roster to have appeared in all 60 games for Hershey this season.
• Hershey's Magic Number to clinch a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs remains at 21.

SHOTS: HER 40, BEL 34

GOALTENDING: HER - Garin Bjorklund, 29-for-34; BEL - Leevi Meriläinen, 38-for-40

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-2; BEL - 1-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Derek King on tonight's outcome:
"It's not what we drew up on the game sheet or on the whiteboard, but I did like our compete. We stuck together out there. That's a good hockey team, we know that. We spotted them a few goals and we don't have enough firepower up front to spot teams a few goals. It was funny because I thought for the most part we were right with them, if not kind of outplaying them a little bit, and then - a couple penalties, they score a goal, we get down, and we're fragile right now. The nice thing about it is that we have a week until we play again, so we can get some rest and just get a little practice time in and get a good feeling back in here and get our confidence."

King on getting the team to capitalize on its early chances when it is outperforming an opponent:
"Well that's the thing we always tell them, that you may have two golden opportunities in a game to score a goal if you're an offensive guy. So when you get those two opportunities, you better be prepared. And right now we're getting them, but we're fluffing the shot, or we're just missing it, or they get a stick on it. We're not bearing down on that. So that's some stuff we'll work on during the week."

Louie Belpedio on what needs to happen within the locker room for the team to get in the right mindset as the regular season nears its final weeks ahead of the playoffs:
"Obviously these past two games weren't our best. I think you go back to previous stretches this season where we played the right way for 60 minutes, we don't have any 10-minute lapses like we did today and yesterday, but the good thing about it is this stretch coming up, we play a lot of teams that are right behind us. We like to say those are four-point games, and try and keep those teams behind you, and just build momentum heading into the playoffs, and I think the beauty of it is it's a long season, obviously you're going to have a lot of high and a lot of lows - we're at a low right now, but we've got plenty of time to turn it around and get on the right foot before playoffs."