Bears Take Down Penguins 4-2, Clinch Division

April 18, 2025

The Hershey Bears (44-19-7-1) clinched the Atlantic Division title with a 4-2 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (39-24-7-1) on Friday night at GIANT Center, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

The Bears concluded their regular-season series against the Penguins with a 7-3-1-1 record. The win marked the 150th regular-season victory for Hershey against the Penguins and Hershey improved to 22-9-4-1 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the Todd Nelson era.

Hershey was eliminated from the race for the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the Laval Rocket defeated the Belleville Senators 5-1 to secure the best overall regular-season record in the American Hockey League.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Hershey outshot Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 12-3 in the first period, with the Penguins not registering their first shot until the 15th minute. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's three shots marked the lowest shot total Hershey had allowed against the Penguins in a single period this season, and matched Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's season-low for shots on goal.
• Hendrix Lapierre collected a goal and an assist for the second consecutive game, providing the secondary helper on Ivan Miroshnichenko's goal in the first period and giving Hershey a 2-1 lead in the second period.
• Miroshnichenko scored his 21st of the season to give Hershey a 1-0 lead at 9:41 of the first period. Miroshnichenko took sole possession of the team's goal-scoring lead, passing Ethen Frank (recalled by Washington on Jan. 10) at 20. Jake Massie and Lapierre assisted on the goal.
• Bogdan Trineyev scored the eventual game-winning goal at 12:23 of the third period, and Matt Strome added an empty-net insurance marker at 18:59 after Jack Beck had trimmed Hershey's lead to 3-2.
• The victory secured Hershey's 20th regular-season division title in franchise history. The Bears have previously claimed regular-season division championships in 1938-39, 1943-44, 1946-47, 1951-52, 1966-67, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1975-76, 1980-81, 1985-86, 1987-88, 1993-94, 2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2020-21, and 2023-24. Hershey also earned two first-place finishes in the 1942-43 and 1957-58 campaigns, when the AHL was not separated by divisional alignment.

SHOTS: HER 37, WBS 21

GOALTENDING: HER - Hunter Shepard, 19-for-21; WBS - Joel Blomqvist, 33-for-36

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

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on how the team got the win against a slightly different Wilkes-Barre/Scranton squad:
"I thought we played pretty well. We had to understand that Wilkes only had half their team out there tonight. They had a lot of guys called up. Some guys were injured. But that team on the other side, they worked extremely hard against us and made us earn it. But our guys stuck with it and I just liked the effort - our guys could have looked across and saw their lineup and go, 'They've got a lot of call-ups,' and stuff like that and went out there and go through the motions. But I thought for the most part the guys were working hard."

Nelson on clinching the Atlantic Division title:
"Well it gives us confidence. I'm proud of the guys in there. It wasn't easy. It wasn't like last year, where we kind of breezed into the playoffs and that's all right. We had to work for everything we got. I'm proud of the guys because you walk around town and people are saying 'What's wrong with the Bears?' Well, we're in first place and second or third overall - it's a pretty good year."

Jake Massie on playing in just his second game back after missing 29 games with a lower-body injury:
"Yeah, it was obviously a long recovery, but I feel like I've got my legs back from underneath me. Wednesday's game felt pretty good and everything seemed to come together today."

Massie on the team earning another division title:
"It's good to finish in first place, obviously we're thrilled about that, but now the real season starts, right? So it's time to get the boots back on and we're gonna take it into the playoffs."

Massie on being named the team's IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year for the second consecutive season:
"I think this community is kind of on a different pedestal. They just really get behind the team and it's really easy to give back. We obviously have a lot of free time on our hands, so whenever we can do that, I know it's special to the kids and the community that we give back to. I always love doing it and I think it's an important piece of being a hockey player."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears conclude the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday, April 19 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Fan Appreciation Night. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.