Hershey Bears eye playoff berth with clinching scenarios against Penguins

Hershey entered Wilkes-Barre with the postseason math in plain view: beat the Penguins and get help, and the Bears could punch a ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs. With a 30-30-6-3 record, 69 points and fifth place in the Atlantic Division, Hershey needed every point it could grab, while second-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton arrived at 44-16-7-2 with 97 points and an eight-game point streak that made the matchup feel like a collision between desperation and control.

The clinching path was direct but unforgiving. Hershey could secure a playoff berth if it beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Lehigh Valley lost in regulation, overtime or a shootout at Springfield. The Bears also could clinch with an overtime or shootout loss of their own, as long as Lehigh Valley lost in regulation. The magic number sat at three, a reminder that every shift on April 15 mattered not only in the game itself but in the standings race around it. A berth would be Hershey’s 73rd postseason appearance, another marker of how routinely the franchise turns spring into playoff hockey.

The Bears also entered the night with reinforcements arriving from Washington. Clay Stevenson, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Ilya Protas were loaned back to Hershey, Ludwig Persson was reassigned from South Carolina, and Simon Pinard was recalled from the Stingrays. That mattered immediately because Protas led Hershey with 62 points, including 28 goals and 34 assists, while Miroshnichenko had 31 points in 38 games, an .82 points-per-game pace that gave the Bears another dangerous scorer. Stevenson’s return gave Hershey a goaltending piece it had leaned on heavily during the season’s stretch run.

The timing made the roster news even sharper. On the same day the Bears were chasing a clinch, the AHL named Protas to its 2025-26 All-Rookie Team, confirming how central he had become to Hershey’s attack. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton also had a rising name of its own in Sergei Murashov, who joined the All-Rookie Team with a 23-8-4 record, a 2.24 goals-against average, a .918 save percentage and three shutouts in 36 appearances.

Hershey’s recent results sharpened the stakes further. The Bears had lost 6-1 at Charlotte on Sunday, with Alex Suzdalev scoring the lone goal, while the Penguins were coming off a 4-1 win over Cleveland behind contributions from Atley Calvert, Aidan McDonough and former Bear Alex Alexeyev. Hershey was finishing an eight-game road stretch before returning home against Bridgeport on April 18 and Rochester on April 19, so a result in Wilkes-Barre could set the tone for the final sprint.