Streak Snapped for Bears in 6-2 Loss to Senators

March 5, 2025

The Hershey Bears (33-15-5-0) saw their three-game win streak snapped in a 6-2 loss to the Belleville Senators (26-19-4-4) on Wednesday night at GIANT Center, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

Hershey concluded its regular-season series against Belleville with a record of 2-1-1-0.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Jeremy Davies gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 12:38 of the first period after exiting the penalty box and receiving a pass, allowing him to beat Hunter Shepard on a breakaway.
• The second period opened with two fights separated by eight seconds of game time. Brennan Saulnier and Jan Jenik dropped the gloves at 3:10, and Dalton Smith and Hayden Hodgson followed suit at 3:18.
• Following the fights, the Senators struck twice in a 33-second span, as Garrett Pilon scored on the power play at 3:26 and Cole Reinhardt made it 3-0 at 3:59.
• Pierrick Dube scored Hershey's lone goal of the contest on the power play at 13:21 of the second to make the score 3-1.
• Hendrix Lapierre extended his point streak to a team-high seven games by assisting on Dube's second-period goal. Lapierre has 12 points (4g, 8a) in his last seven contests.
• Jorian Donovan increased the Belleville lead to 4-1 at 19:28 of the third period.
• Jenik, who had assisted on Davies' goal, completed his Gordie Howe Hat Trick with a tally at 8:10 of the third period to give the Senators a 5-1 edge.
• Mike Vecchione closed the scoring with his 13th of the season at 14:42 of the third from Ethan Bear and Spencer Smallman, extending Bear's point streak to four games (1g, 5a).
• Hershey's Magic Number towards clinching a berth in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs remains at 15 points.

SHOTS: HER 25, BEL 23

GOALTENDING: HER - Hunter Shepard [L], 10-for-14 & Clay Stevenson, 7-for-8; BEL - Malcolm Subban, 23-for-25

POWER PLAY: HER - 1-for-4; BEL - 1-for-1

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on what he liked about the team's performance:
"You know, it's not good when you give up six goals in your own building. We got behind the eight-ball right away. First goal, you know, it's miscommunication. The player comes out of the box, they end up getting a breakaway and scoring. And then from there we're pushing and we hit some posts. It wasn't our night for sure. We finally got one in the power play there in the second to give us a bit of life and then they scored the fourth one, which just sucks the life out of the bench. But we were a bit flat - wasn't horrible, we were a bit flat. And anytime we play against Subban, he plays really well. He had some help from the post, like I said. But it was a game that we didn't generate a whole lot. You have to give Belleville credit, we had two big fights there in the second period that hopefully sparked the crowd and thought it was going to spark us. And all of a sudden the goal goes in short-side from the bottom of the circle. So it wasn't a horrible game, but against a team like that, that has their players back, we have to be better."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they open a franchise-record 10-game road trip against the Cleveland Monsters on Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at Rocket Arena. Hershey returns home to host the Utica Comets on Sunday, March 30, at 5 p.m. at GIANT Center for Hall of Fame Night and Toyota Postcard Night. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.