Fans Fling Teddy Bears Upon Acrisure Arena Ice As Firebirds Win Again

PALM DESERT, CA —Last week, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken, held their home-stand shutout against the Henderson Silver Knights on Friday night, the team reported. Goalkeeper Joey Daccord made 31 saves while Luke Henman scored the lone goal in the contest. Those moves led fans to send 7,278 stuffed animals onto the Acrisure Arena ice.

You've got to appreciate minor-league ice hockey. Where else can you witness a stadium filled with ugly-sweater-wearing fans cuddling teddy bears and waiting to pile them on after their team scores a winning goal? Here's how it went down.

"After 40 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Firebirds finally solved Silver Knights’ netminder Jiri Patera with just 6:23 left in the game," a spokesperson for the Firebirds wrote in a recent news release. Luke Henman found the puck in the offensive zone and slid it five-hole on Patera to make it rain teddy bears in Palm Desert.

Max McCormick and John Hayden earned the assists on Henman’s third goal of the season.

The Firebirds will donate the vast amount of collected stuffed animals to Toys 4 Tots and to local police and fire departments for gift-giving to the children of the Coachella Valley.

In addition to the teddy bears, goalkeeping was a standout performance on the night.

Keeper Joey Daccord made 31 saves to record his second shutout of the season, his other one also came against the Silver Knights in a 1-0 win back on December 2nd in Henderson. Jiri Patera made 29 saves and brought out some magic to keep the game 0-0 for the first 53:37 of the contest.

The Firebirds finished a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and were held to 0-for-3 on the powerplay. 8,641 fans were on hand to watch Coachella Valley move to 17-6-3-0 before the holiday break.

Read the game’s box score HERE.

NEXT GAME: Coachella Valley hosts the Ontario Reign for their first meeting of the season on Wednesday, December 28. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm PT at Acrisure Arena.

Individual game tickets are now on sale for all Firebirds home games for the 2022-2023 season and start at just $19! View the team’s full game and promotional schedule, including theme night events at www.cvfirebirds.com/schedule.