The Hershey Bears (1-1-0-0) continued their 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health, with a 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Monsters (1-1-0-0) on Sunday evening in front of 8,036 at GIANT Center.

The defeat for Hershey snapped a 14-game point streak against the Monsters (12-0-0-2) that dated back to Jan. 11, 2020, and marked the first regulation loss for the Bears to Cleveland during Todd Nelson’s tenure as head coach (8-1-0-1).

NOTABLES:

Ivan Miroshnichenko scored all three of Hershey’s goals, tallying the first multi-goal game and hat trick of his North American career.

With Miroshnichenko’s three goals, and a hat trick on Saturday from teammate Ethen Frank, Hershey tallied hat tricks in back-to-back regular season games for the first time since Feb. 26-27, 2000 when Serge Aubin struck for three goals versus Louisville, and posted three more versus Albany the next night.

Cleveland forward Luca Del Bel Belluz also scored a hat trick, marking the first time the Bears have played in a game in which two hat tricks were scored since Hershey’s Devante Smith-Pelly and Hartford’s Vinni Lettieri both had three goals in 5-3 Hershey win on Mar. 19, 2019 at XL Center.

Del Bel Belluz (3g, 1a) and teammate Trey Fix-Wolansky (1g, 3a) led the way with four points each for Cleveland.

Brad Hunt, Brennan Saulnier, and Spencer Smallman made their Bears debuts.

Hunt assisted on Miroshnichenko’s third goal for his first point as a Bear and his 200th career AHL assist.

Aaron Ness appeared in his 378th game as a Bear, moving into a tie with Gordon Bruce for 27th in franchise history.

Mike Sgarbossa’s assist on Miroshnichenko’s power-play goal at 9:43 of the second period was Sgarbossa’s 154th as a Bear, tying him with Tony Cassolato for 37th in franchise history.

Luke Philp sustained an injury in the first period and did not return.

Cleveland’s Roman Ahcan opened the scoring and found the net against the Bears for the second consecutive game.

SHOTS: HER 23, CLE 27

GOALTENDING: HER – Clay Stevenson, 21-for-26; CLE – Zach Sawchenko, 28-for-35

POWER PLAY: HER – 2-for-8; CLE – 1-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

“I saw one team outworking the other team. I saw one team out-battling the other. The [first] team was Cleveland. They earned the victory tonight. We didn’t deserve anything. I don’t know if it was the emotions from last night, but we got outworked and we weren’t sharp, our go-to guys were not good, that’s putting it [nicely]. You tell right away how sharp you’re gonna be when you get power plays and you can’t make a 10-foot pass, you know? So it’s very disappointing. Maybe this is a good thing to get a slice of a humble pie right now. And our guys in the room have to understand we just can’t put our sticks on the ice and expect to win.” – Todd Nelson on his team’s performance

“It’s my first hat trick, so I’m happy for that – it’s a big moment for my career and family. But it’s not okay, I think we had to be better. But it’s also the first game in the season. We’re still working on details and new guys. But 5 to 10 games in, I think we’ll be in a better place.” – Ivan Miroshnichenko on balancing emotions of first hat trick with the team’s play, with translation assistance from teammate Alex Suzdalev

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Bridgeport Islanders on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at Total Mortgage Arena. Hershey returns home to host the Chicago Wolves for the first time since Feb. 19, 2006 on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Penn State Health Pink the Rink Night.