Teddy Bear Toss goes awry when puck stops shy

The Teddy Bear Toss is one of hockey’s most joyous holiday traditions, as fans hurl thousands of stuffed animals onto the ice where they’re collected for charity.

The trigger for this moment is when the home team scores its first goal of the game, which it appeared the Sheffield Steelers of the U.K.’s Elite Ice Hockey League had done on Saturday night against the Coventry Blaze.

One problem: The puck never crossed the goal line, thanks to an incredible stick save by Coventry goalie Miroslav Kopriva, who kept the puck out of the net with his paddle.

The fans saw Steelers forward Jonas Westerling celebrating what he thought was his goal, before seeing the referee waiving his arms to signal that it hadn’t gone in.

But it was too late: They started tossing their teddy bears over the glass and onto the ice in celebration of a no-goal.

“Hold those bears!” bellowed the Steelers’ play-by-play announcer. “It’s the scenario you fear!”

But the bears weren’t held. The fans continued with the teddy bear toss anyway, even after it was obvious Sheffield hadn’t scored, throwing them onto the ice in an eerily quiet arena.

Perhaps it was better this way, considering the Blaze wouldn’t allow a goal to the Steelers all night in a 2-0 shutout win. In the process, Kopriva entered his name in the pantheon of Grinches that have shut out the home team on Teddy Bear Toss nights.