Carson Wetsch had dreamt of being the guy to make the fur fly at Scotiabank Saddledome.
The Calgary Hitmen captain had also hoped to some day record a Gordie Howe hat-trick.
So why not make both happen in one unforgettable game, just as he did Sunday in the WHL team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss contest and a 9-0 beat-the-stuffing win out of the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors?
“Surreal — it’s crazy,” said Hitmen winger Wetsch, after the wildly entertaining deal at the Dome that saw him front and centre in the spotlight.
“It was awesome to see.”
It took only 95 seconds for the trigger goal in the 29th annual Teddy Bear Toss.
Wetsch’s 10th goal of the year came when he shovelled a puck from in close over Moose Jaw Warriors goalie Jackson Unger.
And down came a cascade of stuffed animals — 22,013 in total — from the 16,869 fans in attendance at the Dome.
The play was made by Maxim Muranov, who dodged a check along the sideboards and smacked a sneaky pass to the front of the net while going down to the ice. And Wetsch was there to put it home high on the short side.
“It’s been a while … the last two years seeing London (Hoilett) score those goals,” said Wetsch, the San Jose Sharks’ third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. “And, I mean … I got the chance. I just put it in the back of the net. So it was a great feeling.
“You may not say it out loud,” continued the fourth-year Hitmen talent. “But you’re definitely like, ‘I’ve been due for a while (to score the teddy-bear goal) now.’ So I was thinking about it a little bit.”
It wasn’t the fastest toss triggered by a Hitmen goal.
That came courtesy of Rob Smith in 2002, when he opened scoring just 65 seconds into that contest.
But it wasn’t any less wonderful.
“It was exciting,” said Hitmen head coach Paul McFarland. “You could tell even just the energy in our dressing room before the game. Obviously, knowing that there’s going to be that many people in the building to come watch our players play, our players came out ready.
“And it was nice to get the first one out of the way fast. I think, obviously, as the game builds, you don’t want to think about that too long. So give our guys a lot of credit for how they came ready to play.”
The delay from bear launch to game restart was just 38 minutes.
And then the Hitmen got back to work — hard.
Before the first period was over, Wetsch scrapped with Warriors defenceman Brady Ness.
And then he tallied another goal as part of the Hitmen’s four-goal, second-period flurry, knocking a Warriors player off the puck along the boards and taking the puck to the net, where he beat Unger through the five-hole.
It wasn’t until the final goal of the night when he rounded out the Gordie Howe hat-trick with an assist — on teammate Axel Hurtig’s first-ever WHL tally.
“I had a bunch of chances last year, and I just could never finish it,” said Wetsch, of doing the Howe. “So (Sunday), when I was able to do it (with an assist) when Axel scored his first goal, it was great.”
The Hitmen scored two other first-period goals — both by newcomer Tanner Howe, who actually turned a regular hat-trick Sunday in just his fourth game with the Hitmen.
The winger’s seventh of the season — and first for the club since being traded here 10 days back — saw him collect a pass from team scoring leader Ben Kindel at the hashmarks before delaying, repositioning himself and using a screen to beat Unger high with a quick wrister to the far side at the 13.58 mark.
Then Howe tallied his 100th career WHL marker with just 89 seconds remaining in the frame, tapping home a brilliant pass undetected by three Warriors defenders from Kindel.
It was Kindel again with the play made — a high-rising shot from the point — that Howe deflected in past Unger for the home side’s sixth goal for the game 12 minutes into the second period.
Also scoring in the second was Oliver Tulk, firing his 12th of the year through a screen to beat Unger high on the glove side, and Muranov, redirecting Kalem Parker’s centring pass off his skates for his sixth of the year.
In the third period, Ethan Moore scored his eighth of the year — banging home a centring pass from Connor Hvidston — and Hurtig got his maiden goal — wristing a shot top-shelf coming in off the point — to round out scoring.
All the while, the Hitmen buckled down defensively to get Anders Miller — stopper of 19 pucks — his first WHL shutout.
“Great team effort, overall,” Wetsch said. “I think we really took it to them the first and second period, and then maybe a little let off a little bit in the third. But we really closed out the game and helped Millsy get his first shutout.”
“The zero (goals against), first of all … that’s what we all strive for,” agreed McFarland. “And for us, we had a pretty bad taste after (Saturday) night’s (7-3 loss to the host Medicine Hat Tigers). And obviously, being our third game in two-and-a-half days (beginning with Friday’s 4-2 home win over the Edmonton Oil Kings), we came back pretty motivated.
“So give our guys a lot of credit. It’s not an easy weekend with travel. And obviously, it shows we’re building in the right direction, but we still got a long way to go.”
Indeed, up they go in the Western Conference standings with the victory.
The Hitmen are now in third spot with a 13-8-3-1 record, a point back of the Tigers (15-11-1-0) and the top-spot Saskatoon Blades (17-6-1-1).
Hitmen players will gather Monday morning at the Dome to distribute the bears to various charities and follow with a visit to the Alberta Children’s Hospital to take stuffies to sick kids.
Among the 70 local agencies benefiting from the toss are the Salvation Army, Siksika Nation and the Calgary Food Bank.
LOOSE PUCKS
The event dates back to the first year of the Hitmen, when Borys Protsenko scored the first-ever teddy-bear goal on Dec. 16, 1995, triggering the release of 1,323 stuffed animals in front of 7,905 fans. After Sunday’s fall of stuffies, the total bears collected from the annual drive is now 499,470 … The Hitmen record in teddy-bear games is now 19-7-1-2 … It was the sixth time the Warriors have been involved in a Hitmen Teddy Bear Toss … The red-themed teddy bear jerseys with snow-capped numbers and a Santa hat topping the Hitmen chest logo that were worn Sunday are to be auctioned off through Wednesday at 8 p.m. at www.elevateauctions.com/tbt. Proceeds go to the Calgary Hitmen Foundation.
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