One of the finest traditions in minor league hockey is the teddy bear toss, when fans bring stuffed animals to donate to charity and wait until the home team’s first goal before raining them down onto the ice. Sunday night’s Hershey Bears game set a new record for donations with 34,798 stuffed animals hitting the ice after a first-period goal.
The WHL’s Calgary Hitmen set the previous record with 28,815 toys on the ice as part of its annual teddy bear toss game. There were 19,289 fans at that game (the team’s first sellout ever) so fans threw about 1 1/2 stuffed animals on average.