There’s nothing like a good hockey rivalry. From the pro level to college and even down to your local men’s league, a rivalry can extract the best from any team. It’s a chance to test a team’s playoff capability in the middle of January and can separate contenders from pretenders. The AHL is no exception, and one heralded rivalry in the Keystone State of Pennsylvania is the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Hershey Bears. The two teams will collide 12 times in 2024-25 as the early favorite for top matchup in the Atlantic Division.
Bad Blood
2024-25 will mark the 26th installment of the rivalry since Wilke-Barre/Scranton joined the AHL in 1999-2000. The rivalry has resulted in eight postseason matchups, with each team winning four series. The two storied foes will meet up 12 times in the regular season as well as two preseason contests. Wilkes-Barre figures to be a team on the rise while Hershey has won the Calder Cup in back-to-back seasons.
The most iconic matchup in the history of the two teams happened in 2016. In a back-and-forth series that had it all, the winner would be decided by a single goal. In overtime of Game Seven, Travis Boyd scored to lift the Bears to the series win. Hershey ultimately made it to the Calder Cup Finals but lost to the Lake Erie Monsters.
The Bears have had the better of the rivalry in recent years, going 9-3-0-0 in 2023-24. Over the last five years, Hershey owns a record of 37-14-4-1 against Wilkes-Barre. In that span, however, the Penguins own the most recent playoff decision in the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs. The Penguins took an overtime win in Game Three of the first round.
Traitor!
Much like the iconic line from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there will be a friend turned foe for the Bears. Calder Cup winner and essential player Jimmy Huntington swapped sides this summer and will likely play in Wilkes-Barre. It’s part of a busy summer that aims to bolster the Penguins to be a contender. The team suffered a devastating early exit at the hands of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this past spring.
The Penguins made significant changes as a result of falling short. Change started behind the bench by hiring Kirk MacDonald as the team’s new head coach. They’ve been busy with player additions, bringing in Dan Renouf, Sebastian Aho, Mac Hollowell, and Nate Clurman. All four players bring in a mix of veteran leadership and scoring ability to add to the existing group.
Wilkes-Barre has a strong existing group. Young players like Sam Poulin, Corey Andonovski, and Vasily Ponomarev will factor in heavily to the equation. The Penguins have a solid mix of youth and veteran experience that will be instrumental to a strong team. It remains to be seen how all the pieces come together under a new head coach.
Bears Den
Meanwhile, the Hershey Bears are looking at another strong season. Despite losing some key personnel in the offseason, the Bears have more than stockpiled some new offensive weapons. Luke Philp and Spencer Smallman were brought in alongside veteran defenseman Brad Hunt. The time is now for the Bears to push for another championship before the team faces major change next summer.
Hershey was able to retain players like Alex Limoges, Ethen Frank, Riley Sutter, Logan Day, Matt Strome, and Garrett Roe. Chase Priskie and Hardy Haman Aktell returned on Washington contracts as well. Outside of departures like Huntington, Joe Snively, Lucas Johansen, and the graduation of Hendrix Lapierre, the team is relatively the same. The Bears will be a deep team once again that will try to match what they did in 2023-24.
The Bears have a similar blend of veteran players and young ones, most of whom added a Calder Cup to their resumes. There will be no easy nights for opponents in facing this group with the sheer quality of depth in the lineup. Hershey will have a target on their backs, something they thrived in a year ago and won’t be phased by.
Calendar Man
Aside from two preseason games that will be used for the purposes of assessing personnel, fans will have to wait for this matchup. The two teams won’t square off until the last day of November for the first time in the regular season. From that point on, the two teams will have at least one check-in with each other per month for the rest of the campaign. It includes two games at Mohegan Sun Arena during Hershey’s historic ten-game road swing in March. It’ll be a matchup that extends to the very last weekend of the regular season.
The road to the Calder Cup is often paved through Pennsylvania. It’s a massive challenge to advance out of the Atlantic Division, and the other six teams will be aware of these two teams. The standings are shaped largely by divisional play, and it’ll be a tall task to earn points off of either club. It should be a fantastic battle to take in this season.
