Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins look to end the Stanley Cup Playoffs hopes of the Blue Jackets of Columbus, and like so many professional sports franchises before them, the Pens have been doing it with a little extra mascot inspiration. Except, unlike the Anaheim Angels’ Rally Monkey or the St. Louis Cardinals’ classier and more intelligent lucky squirrel, the Pens have found motivation in the antics of a two-year old boy named Ty Avolia, who is the fan behind the team’s “Buck Up, Baby!” battle cry.
Earlier this season, the toddler was caught on camera celebrating a Penguins goal, and it added an adorable new face to announcer Phil Bourque’s wonderful slogan. The local news even got in on the action last week, as WTAE in Pittsburgh interviewed the Avolia family and allowed Ty to crank the adorable up to infinity by showing off his incredible love for hockey.
[protected-iframe id=”f40c9f485deed0ce73cd11f6784a6f6b-60970621-60085469″ info=”https://www.cnn.com/video/api/embed.html#/video/offbeat/2014/04/24/buckle-up-baby-penguins-fan-two-year-old-wtae.wtae” width=”650″ height=”400″ frameborder=”0″]
