Bears Humbled in 9-0 Loss to Penguins

January 29, 2025

Ville Koivunen scored four goals and Vasily Ponomarev added three for the home team as the Hershey Bears (26-12-5-0) fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (23-10-4-0) by a 9-0 score on Wednesday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

The loss marked the largest margin of defeat for the Bears since an 11-0 loss at Cornwall on Oct. 8, 1993, snapped Hershey's season-high seven-game point streak (5-0-2-0), and marked only the club's second road regulation loss of the season (14-2-4-0). The Bears dropped to 2-3-0-0 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• The Penguins raced out to a 3-0 lead by the 9:12 mark of the first period with goals from Ville Koivunen and a pair from Vasily Ponomarev to prompt the Bears to swap Clay Stevenson for Hunter Shepard. Koivunen added another tally at 14:15 to run the lead to 4-0, marking the most goals Hershey had allowed in the opening frame this season, and scored twice again in the second period. Stevenson returned to the net for the start of the third period, when Ponomarev capped his hat trick, marking the first time since Nov. 17, 1995 at Syracuse that the Bears had allowed hat tricks to two players in the same contest.
• Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Filip Kral led his club with five points (1g, 4a).
• Bears forward Dalton Smith suited up for his 500th career American Hockey League game.
• Bears forward Bogdan Trineyev suited up in his 100th game with Hershey.

SHOTS: HER 27, WBS 33

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson [L], 16-for-20, Hunter Shepard, 8-for-13; WBS - Sergei Murashov, 27-for-27

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-2; WBS - 1-for-3

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on how early he became concerned:
"Right after the first shift of the game. We had a pretty strong first shift in their zone, and then after that they were the most dominant team tonight, obviously the score indicated that. Nobody played well, but I thought we had a good first shift, and then it was downhill for 59 minutes after that."

Nelson on what was needed for the team to shake things up and get re-engaged:
"Well, they've got to take it upon themselves. Anytime you get embarrassed like that, you know, there used to be games back when we played - if that ever happened, it never happened for one thing because there was some kind of pushback, because we had pride. There was no pushback from our team. And that's alarming to me."

Nelson on next steps for the team with a practice session on Thursday and games against Bridgeport on Friday and Saturday:
"Well, we got embarrassed tonight. I don't think anything has to be said to them. We've got a lot of options for tomorrow. We play three games in four nights, but we didn't work tonight. Maybe we work tomorrow. Maybe we prove a point when we play against Bridgeport. It's a hardworking team. They beat us pretty bad the last time when they were in our building. So if our guys are tired on Friday, so be it. It didn't work tonight."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they return home to host the Bridgeport Islanders on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Sam Adams Tap Takeover Night. Select brews will be on tap for fans 21-and-over at the TRULY portable location, including the new Sam Adams American Light. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.