While Dylan Strome collected his 400th career point in Washington, his brother Matt played the hero for the Hershey Bears 187 miles north in Allentown, PA.
The younger Strome scored twice, including a thrilling game-winning goal, to give the Bears a 4-3 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms — their third-straight win.
Strome’s big tally came with 13 seconds remaining as he skated through the slot and deflected a Brett Leason shot from the point past Phantoms goaltender Carson Bjarnason. Leason’s primary assist marked his first point with the Bears since signing with the Washington Capitals in late October.
“Leason spins and shoots… THEY SCOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Zack Fisch, the voice of the Bears, brilliantly called during the telecast. “A DEFLECTION. GUESS WHO? MATT. STROME.”
Strome also opened the scoring 12:57 into the second period, sending a one-timer to the opposite post past Bjarnason.
Strome now has four goals in his last five games. He leads the Bears in goals with five and is in a three-way tie for first in points with 9.
The two-goal night also marked Strome’s second career multi-goal game as a Hershey Bear and his first since December 30, 2023, when he scored twice at PPL Center against the Phantoms — his former team.
The Bears also got a pretty tally from Bogdan Trineyev, who scored on a two-on-none break with Andrew Cristall set up by goaltender Garin Bjorklund.
The tally marked Trineyev’s fourth goal of the season. The secondary assist also marked Bjorklund’s first AHL point. And yes, he got a graphic for that.
Ilya Protas also added his fourth goal of the season in the third period, thanks to some great persistence. He found a Trineyev rebound at the right post and after about a half-dozen whacks, knocked the puck in.
The Bears survived a furious comeback by the Phantoms who scored twice in 3:11 to tie the game 3-3 with 5:02 remaining.
“It was a kind of crazy game,” Protas said. “We had the lead, they got back, and we kind of took unnecessary penalties – I think it was a fun game to watch for fans. But on our point, I think we need to be better as a team, and we’ve got to clean up stuff.”
Garin Bjorklund earned his sixth win of the season by making an AHL career-high 38 saves. He received the Hershey fireman suit after the game from Protas.
While the game was electric, Bears head coach Derek King was worried about the process and how the team couldn’t seal the win late.
“The two points is great, but I’m not happy with the way we performed,” King said per the Bears. “If that’s the way we’re going to perform every night, we’ve got a lot of learning [to do]. We’ve got some young guys that are just not ready to play in these types of games yet.
“They started coming on us hard and pressuring us. And we couldn’t handle it, we couldn’t sustain it. And we were just coughing pucks up, shot two into the crowd. We’re holding guys, we weren’t moving our feet, we looked tired. I know you’re on the road, you’re on the bus, but these are the games these kids have to learn how to play.
“Hats off to our goalie. And like I said [in the locker room] after the game, they better be putting some money together to buy him some wine, or a meal, or something, because our goalies have been outstanding.”
