Regina beats Calgary 5-2 in teddy bear toss game

Tanner Howe made it rain stuffed animals once again.

Exactly one year after he scored the teddy bear toss goal in 2021, he followed it up with another one in the first period of Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Calgary Hitmen.

Stanislav Svozil found Howe in the slot on the power play, who made no mistake on the shot to get it past Calgary goaltender Brayden Peters.

And the Teddy Bears hit the ice from the stick of Tanner Howe. He scores his 19th goal of the season.

He scored last year's Teddy Bear Toss game as well. pic.twitter.com/o6ja0wwh4O

— Britton Gray (@BrittonGray) December 11, 2022

“It felt good to get it out of the way in the first and I didn’t want our team to wait that long,” Howe said. “It’s very special. It goes to a good cause.”

“We were talking before the game about Pavel Padakin who scored (the teddy bear goal) for us and the previous two years for Calgary. Strange how they fall,” said Pats’ general manager and head coach John Paddock said.

That sent 2,913 stuffed animals of various sizes onto the ice at the Brandt Centre with the Pats hosting their 26th annual teddy bear toss game. A majority of the stuffed animals will be donated to the Salvation Army but a few members of the Pats will be delivering some of them to local hospitals for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

“If we (deliver them) this year, I would for sure do it. That would be pretty special and it would mean a lot,” Howe said.

The Pats also got a second period goal from Alexander Suzladev and then one in the third period from Tanner Brown. Riley Ginnell and Layton Feist both scored on an empty net.

Calgary (14-8-3-1) beat Pats’ goalie Drew Sim twice in the game, both coming from captain Riley Fiddler-Schultz. His first came on a play where it was originally waved off but was ruled a goal by the officials in the second period. His second came on an odd-man rush where he collected his own rebound.

The game was Regina’s first game back at the Brandt Centre since Nov. 12 as the team went on a road trip due to the Grey Cup and Agribition taking place in the Queen City.

“Playing in front of those full houses in B.C., I think it got the adrenaline going for us and made us appreciate the crowds and the full buildings,” Paddock said. “These two games (against the Prince Albert Raiders and Calgary) have been hard. I don’t think they are exactly how you draw it up but that’s the way hockey is.

“They are hard wins and I think deserved by us.”

“It was nice to be in front of the crowd. The crowd was buzzing tonight and gave us a lot of energy. It was good,” Howe said.

Regina is now 7-1 in their past eight games.

The Pats (16-12-1-1) will play in Winnipeg against the Ice (24-4-0-0) on Sunday.