Bears Suffer Heartbreaking 5-4 Loss to Bruins
Published on March 8, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release
(Providence, RI) - The Hershey Bears (26-23-6-2) battled back from a 3-1 deficit to take a 4-3 lead in the third period, but a pair of goals in the final three minutes sent the Bears to a 5-4 loss to the Providence Bruins (43-11-1-0) on Sunday afternoon at Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Hershey concluded its season series against the Bruins with a record of 1-3-0-0; the loss snapped a six-game road winning streak for the Bears at Providence dating back to Oct. 20, 2023.
Hershey's Magic Number to clinch a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs remains at 25.
NOTABLES:
Joey Abate gave the Bruins an initial 1-0 lead at 3:55 before Dalton Smith tied the game for Hershey with his first goal of the season at 6:13 after deflecting Louie Belpedio's shot past Michael DiPietro.
Clay Stevenson exited the game with a lower-body injury at 16:02 of the first period and was replaced in net by Garin Bjorklund.
Christian Wolanin scored a power-play goal at 4:07 of the second and Matěj Blümel tallied with the man advantage at 6:29 of the third period to put Providence up 3-1.
Hershey reeled off three straight goals to jump ahead 4-3, as Bogdan Trineyev scored at 7:29, then Ilya Protas tallied twice at 12:00 and 16:08 to give the Bears the lead. Protas (2g, 1a) and Trineyev (1g, 2a) finished the day with three points apiece.
Jake Schmaltz tied the game for Providence at 17:10 and Riley Tufte netted the game-winner for the Bruins at 19:12.
Brett Leason saw his nine-game point streak snapped after putting up 13 points (3g, 10a) from Feb. 18 at Toronto - March 7 at Hartford.
SHOTS: HER 28, PRO 41
GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 10-for-11 and Garin Bjorklund [L], 26-for-30; PRO - Michael DiPietro, 24-for-28
POWER PLAY: HER - 1-for-3; PRO - 2-for-7
THEY SAID IT:
Bears head coach Derek King on tonight's loss:
"We spotted them a couple of goals, but we've got to stay out of the box as much as we can against any team like that. But I liked the fact that we battled back and we had the lead. Good teams like that, that's why they're in first place. They're relentless and they got a couple on us there at the end. I think we kind of sat back a bit. We were protecting the lead but in the wrong way. We've got to be a little more aggressive and stay on what got us to the lead, and that was being aggressive. We sat back a little bit, but I liked our compete."
King on what he liked about the duo of Trineyev and Protas both putting up three points apiece:
"I think the biggest thing for them is they didn't pack it in. They didn't get frustrated, they stuck to how they needed to play. And it was good to see Cristall up on that line too, taking advantage of the opportunity. Did we make mistakes? Sure we did, but so did the other team."
King on the status of Stevenson and how he thought Bjorklund fared coming in:
"It's never easy like that. [Bjorklund] got a lot of shots last night in Hartford, and then he's resting as backup today and we had Clay going in there. Losing Clay, we'll see when we get back to Hershey how bad it is, but I thought 'G' did a really good job coming in cold like that, and I'm sure like every goalie they always think they can make every save, but he had a pretty good team peppering him."
(Answers edited for clarity)
The Bears continue the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday, March 13 at 7:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza. The Bears return home to host the Belleville Senators Saturday, March 14 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Penn State Health Drawstring Bag Night. All fans in attendance will receive a drawstring bag, courtesy of Penn State Health.
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