HERSHEY, PA — The most-sought-after ticket for a hockey game on Sunday was likely in Central Pennsylvania as the AHL’s Hershey Bears held their world-famous Teddy Bear Toss Game against the Rockford IceHogs. Ten thousand five-hundred and fifty fans — some supportive of the Capitals, others supportive of the Flyers or Penguins, but all who loved the Bears and heaving things — filled Giant Center to the brim to participate in one of the most breathtaking rituals in hockey.
Fans, young to old, brought stuffed animals — sometimes trash bags full of them — eagerly awaiting the first Hershey Bears’ player to score a goal. That’s when the crowd is allowed to throw stuffies onto the ice one by one in a spectacle you can only experience to understand truly.
And on this day, fans got an opportunity to have two tosses.
Bears defenseman Louie Belpedio, a free-agent signing over the summer, scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal 2:55 into the game, sending Giant Center into what voice of the Bears, Zack Fisch, has coined, “sweet, cuddly mayhem.”
On the ice after celebrating with his teammates, Belpedio said that he didn’t have much of a view of his goal, and he thought his shot was a bit of a muffin.
“I just tried to get a shot through to the net,” Belpedio said. “I don’t think the goalie saw it. It was a little lucky. I think it was on the ice, to be honest, but I’ll take it.”
All he remembered from the celebration was that he nearly lost his bucket in the pig pile.
“I got mugged in the pile. One of the guys pulled my helmet off, and I got hit by a couple bears,” he said, smiling. “I’ve been here as a visitor, but I tried to get down the tunnel as quickly as I could so I didn’t have to see it. But just seeing how passionate everyone is, and obviously, the amount of bears thrown in, I’ve never been a part of anything like that.”
The enthusiasm from Hershey Bears players this year was overflowing as the team mostly turned over from last season, featuring a large contingent of notable rookies — like Ilya Protas, Andrew Cristall, Eriks Mateiko, and Ryan Chesley — and other veterans like Belpedio, who were experiencing the Teddy Bear Toss with Hershey for the first time.
“It’s crazy,” Andrew Cristall said. “Like, the bears initially obviously come down — it was like 20 minutes after, they’re still throwing them.”
“It was unreal,” Protas added. “I was thinking about the game since the start of the year, you know? And obviously, I knew it’s huge here. Every year, it’s broken records, so I was so excited for it.
“I was feeling like I’m a 10-years-old child,” he continued. “I had so much fun.”
Protas jumped into the stuffed animal piles at the corners of the rink several times, including with his roommate Bogdan Trineyev, who had to fight for his life at one point to escape.
“His plan was hiding in the teddy bears, and he had more fun than me, I guess,” Protas said.
There was one player in particular who was singled out for having the most fun — perhaps too much fun.
“I think Grant Cruikshank jumped in the pile like eight times,” Graeme Clarke observed.
“I think Cruikshank might have broke the record for most piles jumped in, in one bear toss game,” Belpedio said, laughing.
“Cruiky,” Protas replied. “Everybody was saying he was having fun. I saw him do that [Superman jump into the pile] once.”
Bears head coach Derek King was also new to the Hershey experience and was blown away by what the organization has built with its fans.
“It’s unbelievable,” King said. “I’ve heard of it. I’ve been in them before with other teams, and this takes it to a different level, obviously. I got hit in the head with one, knocked my glasses off. I’m like, ‘Alright, I better take cover here.'”
As King hid near the tunnel, he watched his players and volunteers collect the stuffies off the ice. Though like the coach he is, he began worrying about one person in particular: goaltender Clay Stevenson.
“I just kind of peeked off to the side, and I was looking at the Jumbotron there,” King said. “And I see our starting goalie on his back in a pile of teddy bears doing a snow angel or something. So I’m like, ‘I hope he’s ready to play.’ But we were.”
As is customary, officials stopped the game, and there was an extended intermission for on-ice cleanup. Once the players were done on the ice, they made their way back to the locker room, where they waited to be summoned back out for a continuation of play. How did they keep warm and stay loose during the 30 to 40-minute-long break?
“Do you want my honest answer? Well, RedZone was on, so some of us were watching football,” Belpedio said. “I’m a Bears fan, so some playoff implications. We’re already in, but just seeing who we play next week would be a little important.”
While Belpedio scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal, he arguably was upstaged by Graeme Clarke, who had his best game of the season. The forward — days removed from returning from Davos, Switzerland, to suit up for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup — scored his first AHL hat trick, capping his big night off with an empty-net goal scored from just outside the defensive zone.
“It kind of squirted out to me, and I just took three hard strides,” Clarke said. “Saw that I kind of had an open lane, and late in the game, ice always isn’t good and stuff. You’re kind of just hoping for the best. And obviously, you want to hit the net, just don’t get an icing.”
The milestone gave Bears fans an opportunity to have another toss: this time, heaving their hats.
When asked if he felt upstaged by Clarke’s hat trick, Belpedio laughed.
“No, he deserves that,” he said. “He’s been great for us all year. It’s nice to see him get three. Obviously, any guy gets a hat trick; that’s impressive. So, really happy for him.”
In total, 81,796 stuffed animals were donated, which was 20,000 fewer than the club’s hockey world record of 102,343 set in 2025. Overall, Hershey’s annual Teddy Bear Toss has collected 648,246 teddy bears since its inception in 2001.
“It’s kind of a crazy game where it’s record-breaking every year,” Clarke said. “It seems like with the Bears and stuff, this is my first time being on the home side. I was here one year as the away team, and it’s kind of crushing when you get scored on, and then you got to go back to your room for a while. Obviously, a really cool game. The fans are going crazy.”
All of the stuffed animals will be donated as part of the Hershey Bears Cares initiative and will be donated to more than 60 local and regional organizations, including Harrisburg School District, Gigi’s Playhouse Lancaster, Bethesda Mission, LaMancha Animal Rescue, Hospice of Central PA, Lancaster County Food Hub, Milton Hershey School, and Elizabethtown Fire Department.
Not only did the Bears get two points on the day — they beat the Rockford IceHogs 5-2 — but they also got to get closer as a team and chirp each other.
Like, for instance, when Andrew Cristall was asked what his favorite stuffed animal was.
“I think there was a pit bull that I said looked like Gucciardi, so I think that was the best one,” he said.
Photos by Addy Flint
