Tyler Lowey

Warriors hand Hitmen rare Teddy Bear loss

Jakob Stukel wanted it early. Luke Coleman threw pucks to the net hoping to get a lucky bounce. Jake Bean had a great look at, but passed up an opportunity at it.

The Calgary Hitmen came out flying, as they were competing against each other for the rights to the honorary goal that would send the teddy bears flying onto the ice during The Brick Teddy Bear Toss 2017 with the No. 2 ranked Canadian Hockey League team the Moose Jaw Warriors at the Scotiabank Saddledome Sunday afternoon.

Chase Hartje sent the Hitmen to their second power play of the opening frame when he skated to closely too the Hitmen crease, lost an edge and wiped out Nick Schneider, earning a goaltender interference minor.

Bean, who was recently named to the Canada’s National Junior Team Sport Chek Selection Camp, had a couple great looks on the Warriors’ first penalty kill and was looking to make something happen on the second go around.

Scoping things out down low, Bean could have fired, but waited for Vladislav Yeryomenko — who was recently named to Team Belarus for the 2018 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship roster — to get open.

Yeryomenko, who is having a career season, took the pass from his partner and snapped a wrister past backup netminder Adam Evanoff, as the skies filled up with teddy bears.

“It was a great feeling, unforgettable. It’s going to be once in your life; having it happen to me was nice and I am happy,” said Yeryomenko, who with 24 points, sits one point shy of his total from last year.

“Yoyo was in a good spot and wide open, I just had to get it to him,” said Bean, as 24,605 plush animals were flung onto the ice.

Five trucks, more than 100 volunteers and Farley the Fox gathered the thousands of toys in the 41-minute delay following Yeryomenko’s seventh of the season at the 9:36 mark of the opening frame. Sixty volunteers from The Brick were on hand to sort out the collect bears for hours afterwards.

“We knew it was going to be a full rink tonight, We knew if we came out, played our game and sustained their rush at the start, we would be fine,” said Evanoff.

In his first year in the WHL, after being a 10th-round pick by the Warriors in 2015, Evanoff made 26 saves to extend his record to 7-0-0-0.

“I can’t take too much credit for my good start, the team has played really strong in front of me. Even when I’m average, they still take over and win the game,” said Evanoff, who hid in his net while the tidal waves of bears passed.

For the Hitmen (9-17-3-1), it was elation. The players jumped in the towering piles as more stuffed animals trickled down from the third level seats, all while Christmas carols played in the background from the Bishop Grandin Marching Ghosts high school band.

Following the clean-up crew, the Hitmen didn’t have the same jump in their step.

At the time of Yeryomenko’s heroics, the Hitmen were on pace for 20 shots in the first period, which would have been a season high. In the remaining 10 minutes and change, the Hitmen only threw one shot on net. Aside from an Andrew Fyten wrister high over an empty net, that was all they had in terms of offensive pressure.

Trading scoring chances and rushes with the Warriors can be a deadly game, but Schneider was at his best when one of the league’s deadliest goal scorers and one of the most difficult last names, Jayden Halbgewachs came blitzing down the right wing.

The 20-year-old blew past Layne Toder, cutting in on Schneider, deking backhand, but Schneider’s strong left leg kicked out the puck.

Building off the momentum that still clung to the air in the second period, fellow import Andrei Grishakov staked the Hitmen to a 2-0 lead when Mark Kastelic’s rebound came out to Russian native, who deposited his seventh of the season.

From there, the 18,035 in attendance began to filter out, as the Hitmen’s performance did the same.

It’s tough to say what was more memorizing; the cascade of teddy bears, or the magnetic passing of the Warriors (25-5-1-1).

Brayden Burke netted his 14th of the season when the patience of Justin Almeida was put on display. The Kitimat, B.C. product drew three Hitmen defenders onto his side of the ice before sliding a puck over to Howden for the easy tap in.

“We try to be aware where they are on the ice, but they make a lot of plays and don’t turn pucks over,” said Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson, who was experiencing his first bear toss with the club. “You need to pay attention to the non-puck carrier. There were two, three and four guys away from the puck that we needed to pay attention to. We can’t give teams like that those chances.”

In non-Warriors fashion, they tied things in the second on a rare ugly goal.

A rebound from Howden was pinballing in the feet of a handful of players in front of Schneider, who was trying to fish it out with his glove. Beating him to the puck was Halbgewachs, who snaked out the puck and tapped it into the vacant net.

The Hitmen got one back in the send when Jake Kryski kept his point-producing tear alive. He was the recipient of a lovely pass in front of the Warriors net, giving him points in seven of his last eight games. Bean also picked up his second assist on the afternoon.

The two assists now give Bean five points in the Teddy Bear Toss Game. Bean racked up three assists in the toy game during the 2014-15 season, when the Hitmen skated to a 8-3 win over the very same Warriors in front of 17,543 fans at the ‘Dome.

With the Hitmen on the power play, Riley Stotts got called for slashing. The Warriors wasted no time, as Justin Almeida cleanly beat Conner Chaulk in the faceoff draw, wining the puck back to Dmitri Zaitsev, who unloaded a missile past Schneider at the 17:29 mark of the second to tie the game at three.

To close out the middle frame, the ridiculous puck movement continued when Burke dug a puck out on the half wall from a pair of Hitmen and fed it to Halbgewachs, who spotted the wide-open Josh Brook for the slam-dunk.

Historically, the Hitmen were as tough as Teflon during the previous 22 Teddy Bear Games. Their record now dips to 12-6-1 with a plus-37 goal differential.

The Warriors bucked the trend and handed the Hitmen back-to-back Teddy Bear Game losses for the second time in franchise history when Howden undressed Schneider, going around the Calgary Flames prospect and tucked it into the open cage. Raising his arms in celebration, the ref immediately waved it off, as Toder appeared to pull it out at the last moment. Upon further review after the next whistle, Toder’s effort was a split-second too late.

Just to send mostly everyone home unhappy, Halbgewachs deflected in a point shot from the monstrous Oleg Sosunov midway through the third.

The doubling by the Warriors extended their win-streak to five games, one shy of their season high.

For the Hitmen, they will quickly forget about the loss, as they will help disperse the stuffies to over 60 local agencies including the Calgary Food Bank, Stephen’s Backpacks, the Salvation Army, Siksika Children’s Services. The players themselves will be at The Brick to help distribute the bears tomorrow morning and deliver thousands by hand at the Alberta Children’s Hospital later in the day.

Bean will not be on hand for the spreading of holiday cheer, as he will leave to join the junior national team tomorrow.

“It’s too bad I can’t be there. The best part of the Teddy Bear Toss is giving all the bears out,” said Bean.

“One thing that I’ve learned about Calgary is that it’s very a community orientated city. There is lots of giving in different avenues,” said Ferguson. “This game will put a lot of smiles on a lot of kids faces in Alberta, and that’s the point of what were doing here.”

Since the inaugural 1995 toss, the Hitmen, have provided the community with 323,343 teddy bears, entering today’s affair.

The Hitmen will be back in action Wednesday night as they host the Edmonton Oil Kings (7 p.m.) at the Scotiabank Saddledome.