Hershey Bears vs Belleville Senators February 14, 2026 © Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography
A week of rest during the AHL All-Star Break was not kind to the Belleville Senators.
The Hershey Bears, making their lone Eastern road trip of the season, doubled the Sens 6-3 at CAA Arena thanks in part to some timely offence and 39 saves from goaltender Mitch Gibson.
The Bears and Sens swapped goals in the first half of the opening period, with Alex Suzdalev putting home a powerplay goal and Jan Jenik following up to pull off a deke and score his ninth of the year after being set up on a breakaway drop pass from Tyler Boucher.
The secondary assist was handed out to former Bear Garrett Pilon on a long initial outlet pass to spring Boucher at 6:06.
Hershey retook the lead off a Belleville turnover, through a Graeme Clarke shot through the five-hole of Leevi Merilainen at the 14:02 mark of the period.
Clarke slammed another one home 36 seconds later on a bank pass off the side of the Belleville net to up the Bears goal-advantage to two.
The Sens were held in check the rest of the frame despite outshooting Hershey 14-8.
The score remained the same after two in spite of the Sens continuing to push with 11 chances on net, as Gibson continued to stand tall in the Hershey crease.
That waiting period allowed the Bears to keep leading the pace and add to their lead early in the third on an Andrew Cristall breakaway backhander.
The Sens gained some hope with a slick Phil Daoust tally, dragging around the Hershey defence and going up high to beat Gibson at 4:39, but the visitors completely dashed it with two more goals.
Henrik Rybinski and Bogdan Trineyev both found the net on swift passes to go up 6-2 and put the Sens away.
Olle Lycksell’s late powerplay goal, his eighth of the season in the final 30 seconds or so, did nothing more than cut the deficit to three before the final buzzer sounded.
Belleville hammered Hershey in shots 42-23, but the Bears made their shots count more to hand the Sens their third consecutive loss.
The Sens get the opportunity to match up with Hershey again on Family Day Monday at 3 p.m.
