Rapid Reaction: Allen Helps Bears Escape with Win

In a span of just over two and half minutes, the Hershey Bears found themselves riding a roller coaster of emotions in the second period against the Providence Bruins on Saturday.

Leading 2-0 in the middle stanza, Hershey first experienced apprehension after a potential goal for Lynden Lakovic at 5:28 went to a video review that required several moments before the initial ruling of no goal was upheld.

Then anxiety set in as Mikey Eyssimont scored for Providence less than a minute later at 6:33, and again at 6:50 as Henri Jokiharju, a veteran of nearly 450 games in the NHL, knotted the score at 2-2.

Enter Cam Allen.

After receiving a pass from Jacob MacDonald, the defender walked the length of the blue line before curling back and advancing into the high slot before beating Šimon Zajíček with a wrister for his first of the season.

“It was a good response to get some momentum back, and those are really big shifts,” Allen said. “We were just flying around the zone. I had some speed walking the line, and just saw a lane, and a good screen in front.”

Allen’s goal put Hershey back in front 3-2, and the Bears never looked back on their way to an eventual 5-3 victory. Allen finished the night with a career-high three points (1g, 2a), earning assists on goals from Eriks Mateiko and Josh Dunne’s eventual game-winner. The Bears have now won four straight at home – eclipsing their high mark of three from last season.

“It does feel good [to get the win], but the hockey gods will eventually catch up to you on games like that,” Bears head coach Derek King said. “Our goalie played well, we scored when we needed to, but we’ve got to clean it up or a team like that will just eat you up. And we have better. But still, sometimes it’s good to win a game when maybe you deserve [a different] outcome, but we’ll take it.”

Allen’s goal helped stop the bleeding after King saw Providence begin to creep back in.

“I didn’t think [Lakovic’s attempt] went in just based on talking to our video coach,” King said after the game. “But the next shift going out after something like that has to be a good shift. You can’t turn pucks over, and we turned pucks over after that, and they just started buzzing on us. And then after they scored a goal, it just snowballed from there. But I think when it was 2-2 there, we settled down and we started to tilt the ice back in our favor.”

King believes his young blue liner, who missed much of the previous campaign after being shut down due to season-ending surgery, is simply continuing the path of growing into his game at the pro level.

“He skates so well. He’s got good hands, he can shoot a puck,” King said. “He just has to – I always say don’t ‘Forrest Gump’ your shift, which, we all know in ‘Forrest Gump’ he did all those things in three and a half hours – so you don’t have to do that in one game, like ease into it. It’s been a while since he’s played, but I thought today was much better.”

Allen admitted the bench was frustrated with the lapses that led to Providence tying the game.

“We’ve got to get back to the fundamentals in our systems and just playing that strong like the shift we had when we scored – bringing that momentum back and trying to change the tide of the game in a situation like that – that’s an unfortunate situation and that takes a lot of life out of the team,” Allen said. “But we’re happy to get that goal and [it was a] good way to respond.”

Despite their 1-5-0-0 start, the Bruins are no slouches. They are the defending MacGregor Kilpatrick Trophy holders as last season’s top team in the regular season, and Providence dressed nine skaters who saw time with the club during the 2025-26 campaign. King expects their best in Sunday’s 3 p.m. rematch.

“Whether they make lineup changes or not, they played a pretty solid game. They didn’t change the way they had to play, whether they were up or down or tied, it didn’t matter,” King said. “They just kept coming, and that’s what we have to do. But I’m pretty sure they’re just going to come out just like that again, so we’ve got to be ready for them.”

Allen shared the sentiment of his coach.

“They didn’t play a bad game tonight. If they were able to score on all the chances we gave them, then they probably would’ve beat us,” Allen said. “We’ve got to tighten things up. We can beat that team again 100 percent, they’ll be coming hard.”

Written by Bears media specialist Jesse Liebman