Milwaukee Police Toss 1st Puck and Hockey Fans Toss Teddies at Admirals Game: PHOTOS

Insert linkA pair of lucky local police officers recently took center ice at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena that was later peppered with donations for a noble cause.

Milwaukee officers Andrew Mark and Joe Spingola were invited to drop the first puck last week to start the Milwaukee Admirals game against the Chicago Wolves, according to a post on the department's Facebook page. The match-up was also the Admirals's Annual Teddy Bear Toss.

"At the end of the second period, fans who brought a stuffed animal tossed them onto the ice," the post said. "The officers, along with the Admirals Puck Patrol, collected more than 1700 stuffed animals from the ice, which will be used by Milwaukee police."

Often referred to as "trauma bears," the stuffed animals will be distributed among the department's officers. They'll keep them on hand for use at crime or incident scenes in which children are involved.

"We thank our great community partners at the Milwaukee Admirals for organizing this teddy bear collection," officials said, of the toss.

Accompanying photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Police Department's Jon D. Riemann. Check out the full album here.