Firebirds nab 1-0 victory over Silver Knights on teddy bear toss night at Acrisure Arena
It took nearly three periods of hockey, but the teddy bears were finally tossed Friday at Acrisure Arena.
Turns out the goal that sent the teddy bears flying onto the ice was the only goal the Coachella Valley Firebirds needed in a 1-0 win over the Henderson Silver Knights.
The anticipation for the game’s first goal, and the thousands of teddy bears that would follow, kept rising throughout the night. First period: scoreless. Second period: scoreless. The game remained without a goal for nearly two and a half hours after the puck dropped.
Each time a Coachella Valley player would secure the puck in a position to score, the crowd seemed to collectively inhale with excitement. When the shot would miss, the exhale seemed to only heighten the game’s intensity and the crowd’s anxiety.
Finally, with 6:23 remaining in the game, Firebirds left winger Luke Henman collected the puck near the Henderson goal on a pass from teammate Max McCormick, faked out a defender and then squeezed it past Silver Knights goaltender Jiri Patera and into the net.
The crowd of 8,631 shot to its feet with a roar and the teddy bears were tossed.
“The crowd didn’t wait,” Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma said. “Before the puck hit the back of the net the teddy bears were coming out.”
The teddy bear toss is a holiday tradition that has been going strong in minor league hockey for the past three decades. Fans throw teddy bears that they've brought to the game onto the ice after the first goal of the game scored by the home team. All 7,278 stuffed animals collected Friday will be sent to hospitals and charities for the holidays.
The Firebirds (17-6-3) have not yet been shut out of a game in their inaugural season, but this was as close as they’ve come.
"I mean, obviously it's in the back of your head that you never want to get shut out in a teddy bear toss game," Henman said. "But we showed that we can win in a 1-0 game or a 6-5 game. We have that firepower and we have that ability to defend."
The Firebirds eventually escaped the reality of being shut out in their teddy bear toss game in the face of a pressure-filled moment that they had not faced all season.
With under seven minutes to play in the scoreless game, the Firebirds ran a play to McCormick on the wall. Henman came off the bench at that moment, quickly hit the middle of the ice and locked eyes with McCormick.
"He saw me and made a great pass," Henman said. "He feathered it through two guys."
With the puck, Henman took a fake shot to move his defender out of position and found himself open and one-on-one with Patera at the goal. Patera made 30 saves in the game, but was un able to stop Henman's lone shot on the night.
“He had a ton of speed up the middle of the rink there and Max gives him the puck," Bylsma said of Henman. "Luke shouldn’t give Max too much credit; he made a great move on the defenseman, pulled it in there and broke free and stuffed it. It was a great goal.”
Ice nuggets
Teddy bear toss: The 29-year Christmas tradition is especially popular with minor league hockey teams. The teddy bear toss originated with the Kamloops Blazers, a British Columbia junior hockey team, in 1993. More than 2,400 teddy bears were tossed onto the ice and the tradition began to spread through Canada and around the world.
The Hershey (Pa.) Bears hold the teddy bear toss world record of 52,341 stuffed toys thrown onto the ice in a single game. The Bears set the record on Jan. 22, 2022.
Home cooking: The Firebirds are now 2-1 inside Acrisure Arena, and Bylsma and his players on Friday gave a lot of credit to the home crowd for their early wins in the building.
"To hear their reaction when we scored," Firebirds goaltender Joey Daccord said, "and then once the final buzzer went off was deafening. So, it's pretty fun."
Bylsma added: "The crowd again was fantastic. I don't know how many people were here but it felt full. It felt energetic."
Home for the holidays: The Firebirds have the next three days off and Henman said that it's not enough time for some of the players to head home for the weekend, so the ones staying in town are getting together with their wives and girlfriends to celebrate together.
Firebirds' player of the night
Luke Henman: The only real candidates here are Henman and Daccord. Daccord secured his second shutout of the season, with 30 saves Friday, and is now 10-5 as a starter this season for Coachella Valley.
Was this Daccord's best game in a Firebirds uniform?
"It's up there. Probably," Daccord said. "I've had a couple that felt really good. Tonight was was definitely right up there and to do it at home was really fun and the crowd was really into it."
But Henman was the real star. I mean, he scored the only goal in the game on a night when the home crowd needed a goal for both the teddy bear toss and the win. He also go into a fight. Come on — that's a great night!
The goal was the Nova Scotia native's third of the season. Before it came, Bylsma said he was wondering whether the teddy bears would ever make it onto the ice.
"I was wondering at that point how we were going to see them and if we were going to see them and how we were going to see them," Bylsma said. "I didn't know if they were just going to do it at the last TV timeout and have everyone throw them onto the ice or what to wait for. So, with 6:23 left we didn't get to the last TV timeout. Luke broke free and put it home."
Next game
Wednesday: The Firebirds will remain in the valley for the holiday weekend and then return to the ice Dec. 28 versus the Ontario Reign, a team that figures to be Coachella Valley’s primary rival because of its close proximity. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
Firebirds president Steve Fraser said that hundreds of tickets have been sold to Reign fans from the Inland Empire and that Acrisure Arena should be somewhat of “a house divided.”
Fraser added that having the Firebirds’ closest rival in Acrisure Arena for the first time should make the game particularly eventful.
Andrew L. John covers sports for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Firebirds nab 1-0 victory over Silver Knights on teddy bear toss night
