{"id":186830,"date":"2026-05-08T03:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186830\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:21:16","slug":"hersheys-season-ends-in-game-4-loss-to-wilkes-barre-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186830\/","title":{"rendered":"Hershey&#8217;s season ends in Game 4 loss to Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bears pushed the pace and created chances, but key moments and a hot goalie shifted the game as the Penguins pulled away late.<\/p>\n<p>HERSHEY, Pa. \u2014 The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins eliminated the Hershey Bears from the AHL playoffs Thursday night, winning Game 4 by a score of 4-1 at home to take the series. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox43.com\/hershey-bears-hockey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Bears,<\/a> who needed a win to stay alive, could not solve goaltender Sergei Murashov down the stretch and fell short despite outshooting the Penguins 38-30.<\/p>\n<p>                                        &#13;<br \/>\n                                            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fox43.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                        &#13;<br \/>\n                                            This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Murashov stopped 37 of 38 shots and was named the game&#8217;s third star. He was pulled briefly in the second period but returned and shut the door the rest of the way.<\/p>\n<p>Wilkes-Barre took a 1-0 lead when Joona Koppanen scored just 75 seconds into the game. Hershey answered late in the first on a power play goal from Ivan Miroshnichenko at 19:54, assisted by Louie Belpedio and Andrew Cristall.<\/p>\n<p>The turning point came early in the second period. Wilkes-Barre was shorthanded when Harrison Brunicke scored at 6:20, assisted by Gabe Klassen. That shorthanded goal, which proved to be the game-winner, came moments after an opportunity the Bears could not convert on the other end.<\/p>\n<p>Bears head coach Derek King pointed to that sequence after the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes they think they got to score on every shot they make,&#8221; King said of his young players. &#8220;The fact that he&#8217;s getting the opportunities, our guys are getting opportunities, sometimes you run into a hot goalie and you can&#8217;t&#8230; I told him after the game, like you guys had your chances, they just didn&#8217;t go in today, that&#8217;s all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ville Koivunen made it 3-1 at 3:33 of the third period, and Klassen added an empty-net shorthanded goal at 19:29 to seal it. Wilkes-Barre scored two shorthanded goals on the night while going 0-for-4 on the power play. Hershey went 1-for-6 with the man advantage.<\/p>\n<p>King, who finished his first season behind the Hershey bench, said he has no regrets about how he managed the series.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we outplayed them for the most part,&#8221; he said. &#8220;No regrets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Bears dealt with significant injuries all season, which gave younger players extended opportunities. King said that experience will pay off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They need to learn that every time they step on the ice, the game&#8217;s on the line,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It might be a twenty-second shift or a minute shift. It doesn&#8217;t matter when you&#8217;re out there, you have to think that way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>King spoke warmly about veterans Aaron Ness and Matt Strome, both of whom had uncertain futures with the club. He called Ness &#8220;probably one of the best captains I&#8217;ve had to deal with&#8221; and said he would speak with him in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited for next year because I think these guys are good,&#8221; King said of the young players. &#8220;They have that taste now.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bears pushed the pace and created chances, but key moments and a hot goalie shifted the game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-186830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}