Philp Leads Bears to 4-2 Comeback Win Over Penguins

April 11, 2025

With his team trailing 2-0 at the start of the third period, Luke Philp turned in a season-high four-point performance to spark the the Hershey Bears (43-18-6-1) to a 4-2 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (37-22-7-1) on Friday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

With the regulation win, the Bears have secured a bye for the Atlantic Division First Round for the third consecutive postseason. The victory reduced the Bears' Magic Number to clinch the Atlantic Division title to four points.

By earning two points on the road via the triumph, the Bears improved to 24-5-5-1 (.771) on the road this season to guarantee they will finish the road portion of their 2024-25 regular season with a better road points percentage than their previous franchise-best of .736, set last season (24-7-0-5).

Hershey's record against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton improved to 6-3-1-1. The two teams will meet once more this season, on Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center. 

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• The Penguins built a 2-0 lead with goals from Mathieu de St. Phalle (1st, 6:22) and Tristan Broz (2nd, 0:16)
• The Bears began their rally early in the third, as Garrett Roe scored just 15 seconds into the final frame on an assist from Philp.
• Philp then knotted the score at 2-2 with a power-play goal at 2:05 from Nicky Leivermann and Roe for his ninth of the season.
• Mike Vecchione then put Hersey up 3-2 at the 16-minute mark from Chase Priskie and Philp. Vecchione's goal marked his 300th career pro point, his sixth game-winning goal of the season, and his 19th career game-winner with the Bears.
• Philp then capped the night with an empty-net tally at 18:13.
• Philp's four points mark a season-high for the Bears, and the third four-point night of his career, and his first since April 11, 2023 against the Chicago Wolves as a member of the Rockford IceHogs. Philp now has seven points (5g, 2a) in his last five games.
• Hershey's win marked its seventh comeback victory when trailing after two periods this season and fifth on the road.

SHOTS: HER 24, WBS 29

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 27-for-29; WBS - Sergei Murashov, 20-for-23

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

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on how much tonight's game was a wake-up call:
"I told the guys [between periods] it was ridiculous. We've had only one or two scoring chances for 40 minutes. That's unacceptable. Then our team made up for it in the third period."

Nelson on how Hershey will manage the first-round bye:
"As a staff, we'll have to manage it. We've done well in the last couple of years, where we've been in this situation before, but there's still a lot of work to do and a lot of rest ahead and we've just got to manage it the best way possible."

Nelson on Luke Philp's recent offensive surge:
"I think he's starting to find the net. He's playing with more confidence around the net. He was banged up for quite a bit last year and he was hurt during training camp at the start. He's finally getting into a rhythm right now."

Luke Philp on what enabled the team to battle back from a 2-0 deficit:
"Definitely a lot of resilience in our dressing room. We know we're never out of the game; we didn't have a lot going in the first two periods there, and we knew we had to generate more offensively, so we kind of talked about it [during the second intermission] and that was our mindset going into the third and we did a good job doing that."

Luke Philp on his season-high performance:
"Sometimes it goes in for you, sometimes it doesn't. I think you've just got to kind of stick with it if you're struggling offensively and then when it's going offensively for you, you've got to kind of keep doing what you're doing. I try to kind of maintain the same effort and the same mindset every night and tonight just went my way."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday, April 12 at 7:05 p.m. at PPL Center. Hershey returns home to host the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Fairview Golf Course Back-to-Back Calder Cup Champions Golf Chip Giveaway (first 4,000 fans in attendance) and Berks Dollar Dog Night. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.