A former goalie for the Coquitlam Express is part of a world record.
Clay Stevenson was in the Hershey Bears net Sunday, Jan. 5, when Mike Sgarbossa scored the team’s first goal of a 5-1 win over the Providence Bruins at 14:45 of the first period.
The goal prompted a world record celebration, as the 10,514 fans at Hershey’s Giant Center rained more than 102,000 teddy bears onto the ice.
Stevenson was subsequently captured on video playfully pulling a teammate from beneath the towering heap with the help of his goalie stick.
The bear toss eclipses the previous record of 74,599 that was set by the Bears in 2024.
The stuffed animals are donated to more than 35 local charities that comprise the hockey team’s Hershey Bear Cares program.
Since the Bears started its giant teddy bear toss promotion in 2001, the American Hockey League (AHL) team has collected more than 500,000 teddy bears.
Stevenson made 18 saves in the game to earn his fifth win in 12 starts.
He played three seasons with the Express, leading the BC Hockey League team to a Mainland divisional title in the 2019-20 season before the subsequent playoffs were shut down after one round by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And while Coquitlam swept past the Langley Rivermen in that first round, Stevenson wasn’t part of the effort as an obscure NCAA rule and the unfortunate timing of his 21st birthday just prior to the start of the post-season meant he couldn’t participate if he wanted to retain his academic eligibility to play the following season at Dartmouth University.
The unceremonious end to Stevenson’s final season of junior hockey, in which he won 30 of the 35 games he played, was particularly poignant as it had started late after his mom died by suicide during the preseason.
“Everything she did, she wanted to do to the best of her capability,” Stevenson told the Tri-City News. “That rubbed off on me.”
Despite losing his first season at Dartmouth to the pandemic, Stevenson’s .922 save percentage during his sophomore campaign caught the eye of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, which signed him as a free agent to a two-year entry level contract in March, 2022.
Since then, Stevenson has been developing his game with Washington’s AHL affiliate in Hershey, where he won 36 games in his first full season and helped lead the team to a Calder Cup championship.
In December 2023, re-signed a three-year contract with the Capitals.
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