If you’ve never heard about a sports promotion called the “Teddy Bear Toss,” you’ll be forgiven for imagining teddy bears being tossed into the crowd.

But at the tenth annual Winter Hawks Teddy Bear Toss tonight, it was 20,372 plush toys thrown by fans onto the ice, setting a new record for this promotion. I don’t get it, really, but it’s one of the most popular promotions on the Hawks’ calendar. They dry the bears out and distribute them to charity. (I’m thinking, if all the tens of thousands of dollars were just donated to charity, rather than spent at the Dollar Tree and Fred Meyer for all those plush toys…. Nah, forget it, people like throwing stuff onto the ice.)

It takes quite a while to pick up 20,372 stuffed animals, so Teddy Bear Toss games effectively have three intermissions. (Note to self: take extra beer money on teddy bear toss night.) We got the bear toss out of the way just 3:12 into the game, even though the goal was waved off.

With all that fun behind us, the 6,343 fans were treated to a very strange and entertaining game. Portland held off a late-surging Chilliwack (B.C.) Bruins squad to win 4-3. Portland goalie Curtis Mucha set a team record, stopping 65 shots from Chilliwack.

Related posts:

1. Winterhawks and teddy bears!
2. Blazers Haters, Unite (and best/worst sports teams to pay to watch, I guess…)
3. Go Linfield Go - see a national champ while you still can
4. Say What You Will About Randy Leonard…
5. Where did the season go?