This is precisely why you shouldn't be fashionably late for a hockey game.

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Friday night, Interior Division top dog Penticton Vees squared off with Interior Division West Kelowna Warriors at the SOEC. 

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 By the time it was over, the score sheet read 5-1 for the Vees. The shot clock was 45-18. And 3,084 fans went home happy.

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For the most part. Some weren't quite as happy, and they were the ones who walked in late with their teddy bears on Teddy Bear Toss Night only to miss their chance to toss.

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Jackson Niedermayer scored his eighth of the season just 47 seconds after the opening face-off, triggering the avalanche of stuffed toys, diapers, and other equally squishy items. The goal came so early that some late arrivals were still scrambling a full minute later to lob their merchandise over the glass.

Others who arrived even later never did get the chance, presumably handing their offerings to arena personnel.

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The outcome was never seriously in doubt. Jack Barnes made it 2-0 seven minutes later, and Tyler Ho turned the second period into his own personal showcase, scoring at 13:54 and again at 17:31. Carson Kosobud popped his second of the year in the third to round out a big night for the Vees.

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Tristan Amonte made good things happen all night, finishing with three helpers.

The sole Warriors tally came off the stick of the recently acquired Carter Wilkie at the 12:18 mark of the first, against the run of play.

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Staring at the evening's haul after it had been removed from the ice, Major Paul Trickett of Penticton's Salvation Army seemed flabbergasted.

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"This is amazing!" he said. "What's cool about tonight is that no kid will go without a teddy bear this year. The other cool thing is that we get so many items from this event that we give some of them to patients in nursing homes that have dementia and afflictions like that."

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"So this goes well beyond what people think. It's an absolute blessing that brings a lot of joy all around."

Trickett came to Penticton from Kamloops earlier this year with his wife, Major Lisa Trickett, to run the local Salvation Army branch. That Kamloops also happens to be the birthplace of the Teddy Bear Toss concept seemed only fitting on this night.

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"They'll go to our church, where they get sorted, and then when we do our hamper project next week, these will also be distributed at the same time," he said.

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An hour later, the Tricketts, their crew of expert teddy bear handlers, and the Salvation Army's family services truck were gone and the Vees were on their way to victory. It was a good night all around.

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