BEARS, GOALS WERE BOTH FLYING AT SADDLEDOME
Hitmen top off memorable home game with record tally of stuffed toys and six markers
First came a snowfall of stuffies. Then came a flurry of goals. Yes, it was a warm-fuzzy kind of afternoon for The Brick Teddy Bear Toss at the Saddledome.
To be exact, the number of bears that fell to the ice was a club-record 29,635.
And the number of goals that filled the net for the host Calgary Hitmen was impressive, too, as the host Western Hockey League club delivered joy to the 18,015 fans in attendance with a 6-3 victory over the Kamloops Blazers.
“Definitely an awesome experience and something that I’ll probably never forget,” said Hitmen winger Kane Elder, whose goal made the toss possible just 4:18 into the matinee. “The atmosphere in the rink was crazy. So many fans supporting us and so many Teddy bears on the ice.”
Elder ignited the snowfall of stuffies, taking a feed from Jake Kryski to send him in all alone for a forehand deke.
He finished the pretty passing play started by captain Mark Kastelic at the Hitmen blueline by going top-shelf on Blazers goalie Dylan Garand.
Elder then celebrated by going down to one knee and fist-pumping while skating half the length of the ice amid the beginning of the blizzard of bears.
“Obviously, Kastelic made a pretty good play to Krisper, and he found me driving to the middle and I got it over the goalie’s glove,” Elder said. “From there, you just think of your celebration and what you’re going to do. You kind of feel just zoned out because the adrenalin just hits you so fast. It was definitely surreal.”
Dressed in their special red Teddy-bear-toss jerseys — complete with a Santa hat on the Hitmen logo, snow-capped numbers and The Brick insignias on their shoulders — the Hitmen came ready to put in a significant effort just as their fans came ready to make it rain stuffed animals for needy kids.
“It was an amazing crowd and an amazing response to the Teddy bear toss,” said Hitmen head coach Steve Hamilton. “It was nice to see Kaden get that early goal and the place light up. Certainly a very, very special event.”
Special in so many ways, although the visitors likely didn’t feel that warmth.
The Blazers also had to sit through the Edmonton Oil Kings’ Teddy bear toss Saturday, sitting through a lengthy stoppage while crews scooped up bears and then losing 3-2 in overtime.
With Sunday’s cleanup crew taking the better part of an hour to gather, bag and remove all the stuffies from the Dome’s surface, the club helped entertain the crowd with a joyful — and rather comedic — video on the jumbotron of the Hitmen lip-synching to Dean Martin’s ‘Let It Snow.’
It helped keep the fans going and the buzz up through the lengthy delay.
“Yeah, it’s huge when the crowd gets wild and stuff, because it pushes us and gets us going,” said Hitmen centre Riley Stotts, who had three assists on the afternoon.
“It’s obviously fun with the atmosphere and everything. All the guys look forward to this game. We came out of the game hot. Everyone was excited when we scored that goal.”
In the end, though, it was a second-period avalanche of goals that spelled the difference for the home side.
Although the Blazers opened scoring in the middle frame on a goal by Martin Lang and answered Kryski’s goal a few minutes later when Kyrell Sopotyk cashed in midway through the period, the Hitmen struck for four goals in a span of 3:02. James Malm took a Stotts droppass and shelved a shot in close, and Tye Carriere then struck on a scramble. Then it was Hitmen blueliner Egor Zamula with two — into an empty cage on Stotts’ centring feed with the goaltender down and out, and off the far post with a perfect low shot from the top of the left circle.
Zamula’s second marker chased Ga rand, as he was replaced by Dylan Ferguson in theBlazersnet.
The Blazers’ Zane Franklin scored the only goal of the third period to round out on an electric afternoon.
“You can’t help but be excited when the place is full,” said Hamilton. “Everybody’s here to celebrate — everybody’s here to be part of it. So it certainly amps up the electricity in the building, and I thought our guys couldn’t have got off to a better start than the one they did in terms of how we played in the first four or five shifts and then getting that early goal.”
Zamula and Stotts each had three points in the triumph and Jack McNaughton got the goaltending win to help run the Hitmen’s record to .500.
They’re now 14-14-2-1 with nine wins and a shootout loss coming in their last 12 tilts.
Combined with Friday’s 3-2 edge of the visiting Swift Current Broncos — a win that saw Stotts, Zamula and Josh Prokop score — the Hitmen sit just two points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers for a wild-card spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.
They also have a game in hand on the rival Tigers.
Yeah, they’re snowballing these days, with another big three-game weekend on the horizon.
They’ll host the Kelowna Rockets next Friday at the Dome (7 p.m.), followed by a road game Saturday against the host Edmonton Oil Kings (4 p.m.) and a host of the Lethbridge Hurricanes next Sunday afternoon at the Dome (4 p.m.) before the Christmas break.
“It’s been a huge climb out of the hole that we were in to start the season,” Hamilton said.
“And part of what we talked about ( before the game) was a chance to get level (at .500). I don’t know what we were at after the first 10 games, but it wasn’t good. We weren’t relevant in the playoff picture or anywhere close to where we wanted to be. We’ve had to really grind our way back to relevancy.
“Everyone wants to head into the break trending in the right direction.”