A record 20,567 stuffed toys rained down at Canada Life Place on Dec. 3 as the Kitchener Rangers defeated the London Knights 4-3.
Kitchener had Knights fans clutching their teddy bears all the way into the second period after eight saves from Rangers goaltender Christian Kirsch in the opening 20 minutes.
Kitchener’s Tanner Lam got the only goal of the first period as he came across the London blue line and slid the puck to the net. After a scrum in front it was Lam, who was credited with his eighth goal of the year to make it 1-0.
Copenhagen, Ont, native Cameron Reid made it 2-0 for the Rangers at 1:27 of the second period with six seconds remaining in a Kitchener power play.
Then came the Teddy Bear toss goal.
Evan Van Gorp got the puck deep into the Kitchener zone for London and then dropped it back for Linus Funck. Funck rang a shot off the post and in and down came thousands of stuffed toys.
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Van Gorp tied the game just under two minutes later as he converted a behind-the-back pass from Kaeden Hawkins for his sixth goal of the year.
Then, after a Logan Hawery goal was disallowed after it was ruled that the play was offside, it was Hawkins making plays again to put the Knights in front.
Hawkins spun out of the right corner in the offensive zone and banked a shot off the back of Kirsch and in to make it 3-2.
With London on a power play later in the second period, Jack Pridham dashed down the ice and scored short-handed to tie the game 3-3.
Before the end of the middle period, Cameron Arquette put the Rangers back in front as he backhanded a shot into the Knight net.
London pushed for the tying goal all third period long, but Kitchener held and kept the road-winning streak going between the two teams in 2025-26. Through three games the road team is 3-0.
The Rangers outshot the Knights 27-24.
London was 0-for-1 on the power play.
Kitchener was 1-for 4.
Up next
The Knights will play a home and home series with the Windsor Spitfires beginning Friday, Dec. 5, at Canada Life Place in London, Ont.
The teams have not seen each other since the second game on the Knights schedule on Sept. 20.
Coverage will start at 6:30 p.m. for all games on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.
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