GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS GO BEAR HUNTING IN HERSHEY
Five things to know AHL’s two oldest franchises meet for 469th time
Nov 9, 2025The Rochester Americans (8-4-0-0) continue navigating through Atlantic Division competition Sunday evening as they rekindle the AHL’s oldest rivalry, taking on the Hershey Bears (5-4-1-0) at Giant Center.
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Get ready with five things to know before the Amerks take in Chocolate Town:.
PENS ICED OUT
The Amerks enter Hershey following a triumphant survival of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Friday night, taking a 6-4 win in front of 8,627 fans at Blue Cross Arena.
After Trevor Kuntar scored a pair of goals to help the Amerks jump out to 4-1 lead through 20 minutes, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton rallied for three straight, tying the game early into the third period.
With 8:03 to play, Zach Metsa converted on the power-play to put the red, white, and blue back in front for good, with Viktor Neuchev tacking on an empty-net conversion.
Matteo Costantini made his AHL debut, scoring in the first period and getting a breakaway earlier in the frame. Jake Leschyshyn posted his team leading-sixth goal of the season, while Devon Levi stopped 22 shots for his sixth win of the season, moving him into a tie for the league lead.
Elsewhere, despite jumping out to a lead 18 seconds in, the Bears were unable to thwart Toronto’s scoring threats, falling 5-2 to the Marlies at home Friday night. The loss snapped a four-game win streak for Hershey, which enter Sunday fifth in the Atlantic Division.
DAD PLAYED HERE, TOO
Kuntar is off to the best start of a season in his young career. The third-year pro has four goals through 12 games, already exceeding his three-goal output over 54 games with Providence last season. Kuntar’s four goals rank him in a tie for third on the Amerks in scoring.
The 24-year-old is a second-generation Amerk, with his father, Les Kuntar, having worn the stars and stripes during the 1996-97 season, taking the Amerks’ crease for 21 games to post a 6-9-3 record.
Prior to Rochester, the senior Kuntar spent parts of the previous two seasons in Hershey from 1994-96. The goaltender appeared in 52 games across two seasons for the Bears, including 32 games in 1994-95. In 1995-96, he was teammates with now former Bears head coach, Todd Nelson, who guided Hershey to consecutive Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024.
LEANING ON LEINONEN
Sunday’s early evening start could see Finnish goaltender Topias Leinonen tabbed for his third start of the season. The 21-year-old rookie is 1-1-0 on the year, earning his first win in North America on Oct. 25 in Cleveland, where Leinonen churned out 25 saves to help the Amerks win 4-3 in overtime.
Both of Leinonen’s previous starts have come on the road, with the other occasion coming on opening weekend in Toronto on Oct. 11. The first-year Amerk was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft at 41st overall. Leinonen entered the draft ranked as the top European goaltender by NHL Central Scouting.
Before arriving in the Flower City, Leinonen made 25 appearances for Mora IK in Sweden’s Allsvenskan league last season, going 13-10-0 with a 2.31 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage, and four shutouts.
HISTORY WITH HERSHEY
Between the two teams, Hershey and Rochester have combined for over 10,000 games, over 5,600 wins, 158 seasons, and 19 Calder Cups. Sunday is the first of four meetings between the Amerks and Bears during the AHL’s 90th season.
Sunday is also the 469th all-time regular season encounter between the league’s two oldest franchises. That total surpasses 500 when factoring in their face-offs in the Calder Cup Playoffs, with the most recent occasion coming in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.
Across regular season games, Hershey yields a lead at 220-189-3-0. Additionally, the two sides have had 53 games end in a tie.
The first ever game between the Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears took place Oct. 28, 1956 at the War Memorial in Rochester, where the Bears clawed out a 4-2 win. The Amerks first visit to the Bears came two weeks later at HersheyPark Arena on Nov. 10, where the Bears took a 7-3 win on the front half of a home-and-home weekend. Rochester would earn its first ever win against the 13-time Calder Cup Champions the very next night in 3-2 fashion.
More recently, the Bears have won four straight against the Amerks dating back to the start of the 2023-24 season. Rochester pushed two of those games to overtime.
BEARS OR CUBS?
After winning back-to-back Calder Cups, Hershey’s dynasty run concluded in the Atlantic Division Finals last spring at the hands of the Charlotte Checkers. Since then, the Washington Capitals’ longtime AHL affiliate has undergone significant changes to its personnel.
Derek King was named the team’s new head coach following Todd Nelson’s promotion to Pittsburgh. Five of Hershey’s top six point producers are gone. Goaltender Hunter Shepard, who won the Bears 70 of his last 106 appearances over three years, is in the Ottawa Senators organization.
The Bears offer a reconstructed lineup featuring a roster that has already had 11 different rookies appear in games. The Bears are now the fifth-youngest team in the Eastern Conference based on average age (24.21), though the team ranks seventh in the league with professional game experience, totaling out at 3,707 pro games played. This is in large part contributed to by team captain Aaron Ness, who is the AHL’s active games leader, with Sunday slated to be the veteran’s 791st game.