Szymanski: Bears Season Comes to an End with 4-1 Loss to Penguins

Hershey entered tonight fighting for their playoff lives. After a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins on Tuesday night, puts the Bears down 2-1 in the series against their in-state rivals.

It has been a tightly fought series in every aspect of the sport. Shot counts have been tight, the level of physicality has risen and the goaltending has been excellent. A win, and Hershey returns to Wilkes-Barre on Saturday night for a winner takes all game five. Lose, and the season is over.

Game 4 projected lineup against the Penguins:

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— x – Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) May 7, 2026

Only one change from Hershey compared to Tuesday night. The recently recalled Jaylen Luypen slides into the lineup for Wyatt Bongiovanni. Sonny Milano is also available again, but Derek King stated pregame he wants Milano to get some conditioning back after missing over a week due to an illness.

Postgame Takeaways

Early goals have been killer for Hershey all series long. That didn’t change tonight. A rare true rookie moment from David Gucciardi, who tried to go solo and turned the puck over in a dangerous area, leading to the Penguins getting a 1-0 lead 1:15 into the game.
Credit to the Bears though- they did what they’ve done all season and fought back.
Clay Stevenson helped weather the storm in the first as well, with multiple key stops as Wilkes-Barre tried to overwhelm the Bears.
A late power play would get Hershey on the board, as Ivan Miroshnichenko would get his second of the playoffs with 5.1 seconds left in the period to tie up the game.
The second would be the turning point of the game, and inevitably in the series. On the power play, Hershey got an odd-man rush, and Andrew Cristall had a wide open net. But, he failed to bury his chance and the Penguins went down the other way and capitalized on their own two-on-one.
You could tell that was an energy killer. The Bears looked defeated and the energy from Bear Nation in the building was taken out. It’s something that has happened before, and it will happen again, but it never becomes easier to see.
After converting their first power play, Hershey would fail to convert their other five opportunities. It’s not like the chances didn’t come, the Bears were unable to solve Murashov for most of the night.
Hershey was able to keep Ville Koivunen generally quiet for most of this series, but he struck on a pretty passing play that felt like the dagger in Hershey’s season to make it 3-1 Penguins.
Always hard to see the handshake line not go your way, but after a series full of tough physical play, it is always impressive to see the respect these players have for each other at the end of any series.
Matt Strome and Aaron Ness both got extended moments after the game. Both have expiring contracts.
Postgame, Matt Strome said he wanted to come back. If that stays true, Hershey should give him a new contract to be back. He is an important part of this leadership group and a solid bottom six contributor.
Aaron Ness admitted he will take time to talk with his family about coming back. If this was the end, Aaron Ness has etched himself into Hershey’s record books. He will be an AHL hall of famer and he will have a plaque in Hershey’s personal hall of fame too.
Finally- Thank you to all who followed along with us this year. This is the best fanbase in the American Hockey League and it is a pleasure to cover this group every year.