Phantoms Teddy Bear Toss 2018
ALLENTOWN, PA -- For the fifth straight year, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms hosted their annual Teddy Bear Toss night when they took on the Cleveland Monsters Saturday night at PPL Center.
History seemed to repeat itself, as it didn't take long before fans were throwing their stuffed animals onto the ice. It took just four minutes and six seconds for Lehigh Valley to tally their first goal, with Connor Bunnaman tallying his second goal in as many nights to make it rain stuffed toys.
"It's a fun thing with the boys. You saw us playing sewer on the ice," Bunnaman said after the game. "It was a fun time, but there's still a game going on out there so you [have to re-focus]."
PHANTOMS TEDDY BEAR TOSS GOAL HISTORY
2014 - Brett Hextall 2015 - Andrew MacDonald 2016 - Nicolas Aube-Kubel 2017 - Oskar Lindblom 2018 - Connor Bunnaman
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms and PPL Center staff will be counting all of the bears and stuffed animals from the Teddy Bear Toss on Monday morning. The bears and stuffed animals will be delivered to Valley Youth House for distribution to children across the Lehigh Valley beginning later that day.
EDIT: The total is in. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms and their fans collected 7,148 stuffed animals - a new team record!
Previous Teddy Bear Toss Totals
2017: 4,970 2016: 4,125 2015: 2,773 2014: 1,728
Over the past five seasons, Phantoms fans have now donated more than 20,500 teddy bears and stuffed animals through the Teddy Bear Toss per the team's press release Monday.
The teddy bear goal scorer Connor Bunnaman (left) takes a photo op with backup goaltender Carter Hart (right).
Speaking of Bunnaman, where did he go? Almost can't see him in the background there with all the stuffed animals beginning to pile up.
Alex Lyon helped clear some stuffed animals out from his goal area.
Phantoms' forward Mike Vecchione spotted an opportunity to kill some free time during the teddy bear toss celebration.
It wasn't long after that several of his teammates joined in a circle to kick around the soccer ball. Just like pre-warmup routine, right guys?
Thankfully, there were plenty of helpers like this kid to help collect the stuffed animals and keep the delay to a minimum.
