Hershey Bears Launch Longest Road Trip of Season, Eight Games Away

The Hershey Bears packed their bags after a rough Sunday and hit the road for the longest stretch of consecutive away games on their 2025-26 schedule: eight straight contests beginning Friday at Syracuse and running through April 15 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The departure follows a 6-3 loss to Bridgeport at GIANT Center, a game that got away from Hershey in a disastrous second period where the Islanders scored four times to turn a one-goal deficit into a 5-1 lead. Leon Muggli tied things at 1-1 with his first career AHL goal early in the second, with Ilya Protas and Andrew Cristall picking up assists, but Bridgeport answered with four straight to end any hope. Hershey attempted a third-period comeback, replacing Garin Bjorklund in net with Mitch Gibson. It wasn't enough.

With 10 games remaining and currently at 63 points in the standings, the Bears need a combination of 17 points either earned by their performance or lost by the team with the highest possible total outside of the playoff picture to qualify for the 2026 postseason. That math makes this eight-game swing more than a scheduling inconvenience.

The Bears sit 27-26-6-3 and fourth in the Atlantic Division. The road trip visits Charlotte (twice), Bridgeport, Hartford, Lehigh Valley, Springfield, Syracuse, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Hershey has gone 14-11-1-2 in away contests this season and is 6-6-1-2 in road games against the opponents they'll face on the trip.

The player who figures most prominently in Hershey's playoff math is Protas. The 19-year-old enters the weekend on a five-game point streak (4g, 4a), with his team-leading 53 points (26g, 27a) tied for the league rookie scoring lead with Bakersfield's Quinn Hutson. His 20.6% shooting percentage leads all rookies with at least 36 games played, and while Hutson has 26 power-play points to Protas' 15, Protas has generated 37 points at even strength and added a shorthanded goal. The win-loss stakes attached to his production are striking: when Protas records at least a point, the Bears are 20-7-2-3; when he scores a goal, the record is 13-5-4-2.

Protas and linemate Andrew Cristall, who reached 50 points (15g, 35a), are the first rookie duo in Hershey to record at least 50 points since Riley Barber and Travis Boyd in 2015-16.

The trip opens Friday at Syracuse, where Hershey holds a recent edge. The Bears have won their last three meetings with the Crunch at Upstate Medical University Arena, including a 2-1 victory on Nov. 14 in which both Protas and Cristall scored.

Saturday brings the more complicated test. Hershey closes out its season series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at PPL Center, having gone 4-4-1-0 through nine games against its I-78 rival, with Brett Leason and Protas tied for the team lead in that series with three goals and five assists apiece. The Bears are seeking their first road win against Lehigh Valley since Nov. 15, when former Phantom Matt Strome potted his second goal of the contest with 13 seconds left in regulation to break a 3-3 tie and lift Hershey to a 4-3 victory.

After the road trip wraps April 15, Hershey returns home to GIANT Center for the final two games of its 88th AHL campaign. Whether those games carry playoff urgency or a farewell-season feel depends almost entirely on what happens between now and then.