Despite Miroshnichenko Hat Trick, Bears Fall 6-3

October 13, 2024

The Hershey Bears (1-1-0-0) continued their 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health, with a 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Monsters (1-1-0-0) on Sunday evening in front of 8,036 at GIANT Center.

The defeat for Hershey snapped a 14-game point streak against the Monsters (12-0-0-2) that dated back to Jan. 11, 2020, and marked the first regulation loss for the Bears to Cleveland during Todd Nelson's tenure as head coach (8-1-0-1).

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Ivan Miroshnichenko scored all three of Hershey's goals, tallying the first multi-goal game and hat trick of his North American career.
• With Miroshnichenko's three goals, and a hat trick on Saturday from teammate Ethen Frank, Hershey tallied hat tricks in back-to-back regular season games for the first time since Feb. 26-27, 2000 when Serge Aubin struck for three goals versus Louisville, and posted three more versus Albany the next night.
• Cleveland forward Luca Del Bel Belluz also scored a hat trick, marking the first time the Bears have played in a game in which two hat tricks were scored since Hershey's Devante Smith-Pelly and Hartford's Vinni Lettieri both had three goals in 5-3 Hershey win on Mar. 19, 2019 at XL Center.
• Del Bel Belluz (3g, 1a) and teammate Trey Fix-Wolansky (1g, 3a) led the way with four points each for Cleveland.
• Brad Hunt, Brennan Saulnier, and Spencer Smallman made their Bears debuts.
• Hunt assisted on Miroshnichenko's third goal for his first point as a Bear and his 200th career AHL assist.
• Aaron Ness appeared in his 378th game as a Bear, moving into a tie with Gordon Bruce for 27th in franchise history.
• Mike Sgarbossa's assist on Miroshnichenko's power-play goal at 9:43 of the second period was Sgarbossa's 154th as a Bear, tying him with Tony Cassolato for 37th in franchise history.
• Luke Philp sustained an injury in the first period and did not return.
• Cleveland's Roman Ahcan opened the scoring and found the net against the Bears for the second consecutive game.

SHOTS: HER 23, CLE 27

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 21-for-26; CLE - Zach Sawchenko, 28-for-35

POWER PLAY: HER - 2-for-8; CLE - 1-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

"I saw one team outworking the other team. I saw one team out-battling the other. The [first] team was Cleveland. They earned the victory tonight. We didn't deserve anything. I don't know if it was the emotions from last night, but we got outworked and we weren't sharp, our go-to guys were not good, that's putting it [nicely]. You tell right away how sharp you're gonna be when you get power plays and you can't make a 10-foot pass, you know? So it's very disappointing. Maybe this is a good thing to get a slice of a humble pie right now. And our guys in the room have to understand we just can't put our sticks on the ice and expect to win." - Todd Nelson on his team's performance

"It's my first hat trick, so I'm happy for that - it's a big moment for my career and family. But it's not okay, I think we had to be better. But it's also the first game in the season. We're still working on details and new guys. But 5 to 10 games in, I think we'll be in a better place." - Ivan Miroshnichenko on balancing emotions of first hat trick with the team's play, with translation assistance from teammate Alex Suzdalev

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Bridgeport Islanders on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at Total Mortgage Arena. Hershey returns home to host the Chicago Wolves for the first time since Feb. 19, 2006 on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Penn State Health Pink the Rink Night. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.