Weekly Release: Bears Host Monsters

January 6, 2026

The Hershey Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host the Cleveland Monsters for a pair of games this weekend at GIANT Center to complete their regular-season series with the North Division club.

2025-26 SEASON LEADERS:
Goals: Ilya Protas (13)
Assists: Andrew Cristall (20)
Points: Andrew Cristall, Ilya Protas (25)
PIMs: Sam Bitten (44)
Power-Play Goals: Ilya Protas (5)
Shorthanded Goals: Ryan Chesley, Grant Cruikshank, Henrik Rybinski, Ilya Protas, Bogdan Trineyev (1)
Game-Winning Goals: Ryan Chesley, Graeme Clarke (2)
Plus/Minus: Ilya Protas (+7)
Shots: Graeme Clarke (75)
Wins: Clay Stevenson (8)
Shutouts: Mitch Gibson (1)
GAA: Mitch Gibson (2.01)
SV%: Mitch Gibson (.926)
Only includes players on active roster

LOCAL PRACTICE SCHEDULE:

Monday, Jan. 5
DAY OFF

Tuesday, Jan. 6
Practice, 11 a.m., GIANT Center

Wednesday, Jan. 7
DAY OFF

Thursday, Jan. 8
Practice, 11 a.m., GIANT Center

Friday, Jan. 9
Practice, 11 a.m., GIANT Center

Saturday, Jan. 10
Morning Skate, 10:15 a.m., GIANT Center

Practice schedule is subject to change. Please check HersheyBears.com daily for updates.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS:

Wednesday, Dec. 31 - Hershey 0 at Lehigh Valley 3
Saturday, Jan. 3 - Hershey 5 vs. Rockford 4
Sunday, Jan. 4 - Hershey 5 vs. Rockford 2

UPCOMING GAME SCHEDULE:

Saturday, Jan. 10 vs. Cleveland, 7 p.m. - CLICK TO PURCHASE TICKETS

• Pepsi Cowboy Hat Night - The first 6,000 fans in attendance will receive a Bears cowboy hat, courtesy of Pepsi.
• Country Night - Got our boots... Got our hats... We're bringing country back! Get ready to have a yee-hockey good time at our first ever Country Night. The evening will also feature internationally-known line and partner dance choreographer Heidi Cluck of Dance with Heidi leading line dancing instruction on the back of the GIANT Center concourse during pregame from 6-6:45 p.m. and a performance during the second intermission.
• 1938 Jerseys - The Bears will be wearing their 1938-inspired throwback jerseys as part of the American Hockey League's 90th anniversary season.

Sunday, Jan. 11 vs. Cleveland, 5 p.m. - CLICK TO PURCHASE TICKETS

• Autograph Night - Fans are welcome onto the ice following Sunday's game for a 75-minute postgame autograph session with the team.
• David A. Smith Team Photo Night - The first 6,000 fans in attendance will receive a 2025-26 Bears team photo, courtesy of David A. Smith.
• 1938 Jerseys - The Bears will be wearing their 1938-inspired throwback jerseys as part of the American Hockey League's 90th anniversary season.

All times Eastern.

Video Coverage: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio Coverage: Bears Radio Network

TEAM NEWS AND NOTES:

TEDDY BEAR TOSS RECAP:
The Bears hosted their their world-famous GIANT Teddy Bear Toss last Sunday against Rockford, as Louie Belpedio scored at 2:55 of the first period to prompt the 10,550 fans in attendance to throw 81,796 teddy bears and stuffed animals to the ice that were ultimately collected and donated to children in need across Central Pennsylvania through 60 local organizations as part of the team's Hershey Bears Cares initiative. The event has grown in scale each year since it was first held by the Bears in 2001, and the club has collected in total 648,246 stuffed animals since then. Since 2001, Hershey has posted a record of 17-3-0-2 along with two ties in Teddy Bear Toss games hosted by the club. The organization also hosted a drive-thru event in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A LATVIAN MOOSE IN ITALY:
The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation announced its roster for the men's hockey tournament at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina earlier today, and Bears forward Eriks Mateiko has made the cut for his home country. The Washington Capitals prospect has five points (1g, 4a) in 25 games for Hershey in his first season of professional hockey, and will be the first active Bear to participate in the Olympics since Chris Bourque suited up for the Team U.S.A. in the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

LOOK ALIVE, 25:
First-year forwards Ilya Protas (13g, 12a) and Andrew Cristall (5g, 20a) share the team scoring lead with 25 points apiece. The duo are one of three pairs of rookies in the league to occupy a spot in the top 10 in rookie scoring, along with Bakersfield's Quinn Hutson (32, 1st) and Isaac Howard (23, T-8th), and San Jose's Igor Chernyshov (23, T-8th) and Quentin Musty (23, T-8th). Hershey has not had a pair of rookies each record at least 25 points since Ethen Frank (49) and Hendrix Lapierre (30) did so with the Bears in 2022-23.

MUGGLI BACK FROM WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP:
Defenseman Leon Muggli returned to the Bears over the weekend after serving as captain of Switzerland's roster at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Minnesota; Muggli led his team in scoring with five points (1g, 4a) in five games as the Swiss finished sixth in the tournament after being eliminated by eventual silver-medalist Czechia in the quarterfinal round. Muggli appeared in two contests with the Bears in October before sustaining an upper-body injury that kept him out of game action until the World Junior Championship.

BACK WITH A BANG:
In his second game back since returning from his stint with Team Canada at the Spengler Cup, Graeme Clarke earned the AHL's First Star of the Night honors with his four-point performance against Rockford. Clarke assisted on Louie Belpedio's Teddy Bear Toss goal, then added three goals (including the game-winner) for his first professional hat trick, while also earning both his 200th career professional and AHL points. Clarke's four-point outing was the third of his AHL career and represented the largest single-game total of any Bears player this season, and his hat trick was Hershey's first since Ivan Miroshnichenko scored three against Bridgeport on Jan. 31, 2025 in a 5-4 win. Clarke's two game-winning goals this season are tied with Ryan Chesley for the team lead.

SHORTHANDED SPECIALISTS:
The Bears scored their fifth shorthanded goal of the season last Saturday in their 5-4 win over Rockford, as Henrik Rybinski found twine just 2:10 into the contest. Hershey's five shorthanded tallies are one back of the league lead, currently a four-way tie between Belleville, Chicago, San Diego, and Syracuse. All of Hershey's shorthanded goals have come at home, and all via different individual players, more than doubling last season's output of two. Rybinski's goal was his third career shorthanded marker, while Bogdan Trineyev leads the active roster with five career shorthanded goals.

SMALL-MAN, BIG PRESENCE:
Despite losing one of his three assists from Sunday's performance due to a retroactive score correction, Spencer Smallman has enjoyed a recent slate of offensive production. The forward has five points (1g, 4a) over his last five games, and is 12 assists away from 100 in his AHL career. This season the Bears have been without Smallman's services for a total of 10 games due to injury, along with two games due to an NHL recall in November. When Smallman has dressed for the Bears, the team is five games above the .500 mark (12-7-0-0), the best among Hershey's forward group; it is the second-best record of any player on the team behind only Cam Allen (12-5-1-0).

MONSTER ACTION:
The Bears will wrap up their four-game season series this weekend with a pair of home games against the Cleveland Monsters. During its two-game visit to Cleveland in late November, Hershey won the initial contest by a 5-2 score on Nov. 20, only to see the Monsters respond with a 5-3 victory two nights later, ending a nine-game road win streak against the franchise. Cleveland visits Toronto on Wednesday before traveling to Hershey; the Monsters have gone 10-7-1-0 since they last faced the Bears. Ilya Protas leads the Bears in the season series with five points (2g, 3a) in two contests. Bears Goaltender Clay Stevenson is 6-1-0 with a 2.02 goals-against average, a .921 save percentage, and two shutouts in seven career outings against the Monsters.

STINGRAYS REPORT:
With a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in place for the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players' Association in place, the South Carolina Stingrays went a perfect 3-0-0 last week in their return to action, earning a New Year's Eve victory over Greenville before picking up a pair of wins over the weekend against Greensboro. The Stingrays sit third in the ECHL's South Division, just two points back of first-place Florida. Bears-contracted forward Simon Pinard netted the game-winning goal in Sunday's victory and his 31 points is tied for seventh in league scoring, while Capitals goaltending prospect Garin Bjorklund started all three games for South Carolina last week, going 2-0-0 with a 1.94 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage, and received a fighting major and game misconduct for scrapping with Greensboro's Nikita Quapp late in the second period on Sunday.

BEARS BITES:
Graeme Clarke's goals at 12:17 and 13:11 of the second period in Sunday's win over Rockford represents the fastest pair of goals scored by Hershey (54 seconds) this season...Hershey's power play has gone 5-for-12 (41.67%) over its last four games, while going 12-for-13 (92.31%) with a shorthanded goal on the penalty kill in that same time...Clay Stevenson's next victory will move him past Marc D'Amour (53) for 18th in the club record book...Corey Schueneman is one assist away from earning his 100th career AHL helper...Dalton Smith is four penalty minutes away from his 1,000th in the AHL...Rookie defenseman Cam Allen has five points (2g, 3a) in his last seven games and registered the first multi-point game of his career last Sunday...Hershey is 13-4-1-0 when scoring first this season...The Bears are 15-5-1-0 when tied or leading after the first period...Forward Matt Strome celebrated his 27th birthday today.