By: Jake Ferraro | Follow me on Twitter/X @18Jxxx18
After playing their first five home games of the 2026-27 American Hockey League season, the Providence Bruins fell 5-3 to the Hershey Bears in their first road game last night. Less than 24 hours later, the Bruins faced the Bears in a rematch to close out the back-to-back and final meeting in Hershey this season, and today’s game went way better than last night.
The Bruins defeated the Bears 6-1 at Giant Center to improve to 2-5. The Bruins snapped their two-game losing streak and earned their first road win of the season. In both games the Bruins won this season, they scored six goals. Over their last two games, the Bruins’ offense and defense struggled, but both bounced back strongly today.
First Period
The Bruins allowed their opponents to score the first goal in their first six games this season. Today, that changed. Just 4:29 into the game, on their first shot, forward Mikey Eyssimont scored his fifth goal of the season, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead on Bears goaltender Mitch Gibson. Eyssimont scored the Bruins’ first goal against the Bears in back-to-back games.
The Bruins kept pressure on Gibson with quality scoring chances, and it paid off later in the period. With 3:34 remaining, forward Jake Schmaltz scored his first goal of the season, extending the Bruins’ lead to 2-0, which was the score heading into the first intermission. Bruins goaltender Jiri Patera stopped all ten shots on goal.
Second Period
The Bruins began the second period by killing off the final 23 seconds of forward Brendan Gaunce’s first-period slashing penalty. Six minutes in, the Bruins got their first power play opportunity, and Eyssimont scored to extend the lead to 3-0. However, Eyssimont wasn’t done for the period.
With 40.2 seconds remaining, Eyssimont stayed hot again, completing the hat trick and extending the Bruins’ lead to 4-0 with his seventh goal of the season. Eyssimont recorded his second hat trick and his third consecutive multi-point game of the season. Per Hershey Bears media specialist Jesse Liebman, Eyssimont became the first Providence Bruins player since Sergei Zholtok on Dec. 10, 1994, to record a regular season hat trick in Hershey.
Third Period
The Bruins started the third period with 1:20 of power play time, but they failed to score. However, Gaunce scored his third goal of the season shortly after the power play expired, extending the Bruins’ lead to 5-0. With 9:28 remaining, Bruins forward Alex Steeves received a five-minute major penalty for slashing and a game misconduct. Forward Joey Anderson scored the Bears’ only goal on the five-minute power play, snapping Patera’s shutout. With 2:55 remaining in regulation, forward Brian Halonen scored his first goal as a Bruin to make it 6-1.
Halonen’s goal completed his three-point game. Halonen and defenseman Tobie Paquette-Bisson each recorded two assists. Ten different Bruin skaters recorded at least one point. Patera made 27 saves to earn his first win as a Bruin. The Bruins outshot the Bears 34-28.
Another Busy Weekend Ahead
The Bruins return to action next weekend with another back-to-back. The first game is on the road this Friday against the Hartford Wolf Pack at PeoplesBank Arena, with puck drop at 7 p.m. ET. The Wolf Pack won the first meeting against the Bruins this season, 2-0, on Oct. 9. The Bruins will then host the Utica Comets the next day at Amica Mutual Pavilion, with puck drop at 7:05 p.m. ET. The Comets won 2-1 in the first meeting against the Bruins on Oct. 2, the season opener.
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