It was a second period goal that triggered a record-setting avalanche of teddy bears and took 40 minutes to clean up. Every year, around the holidays, several hockey teams through several leagues hold a special game in which fans are encouraged to bring stuffed animals – all who fall under the helpful “teddy bear” moniker – to the rink with them.
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Saturday’s game against the Swift Current Broncos was also the Hitmen’s first-ever sellout crowd, which only added to the night’s impact.
The almost 29,000 bears and other assorted animals broke the previous world record of 26,919 stuffed animals thrown on the Saddledome arena ice back in 2007.
Hitmen staff will now begin distributing the stuffed toys to more than fifty different agencies starting Monday morning.
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“We can not thank our fans enough as their support for this event continues to grow to unbelievable levels”, Hitmen general manager Mike Moore told Global News. The team collects teddy bears for local children’s groups but they do it in a similar fashion to how fans would celebrate a hat trick.
