Second thoughts

— Hey, Alex, try being an angel

Washington Capitals center Alex Ovechkin may have some competition for best goal celebration.

According to Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports, a youth hockey team from Virginia delighted the crowd with their unique goal celebration during Tuesday’s game at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

The Capitals invited the Reston (Va.) Raiders (ages 8 and younger) to participate in a “Mites on Ice” youth hockey intrasquad mini-game during intermission on Tuesday. In the spirit of Ovechkin, the Raiders celebrated each goal - dropping to the ice and making snow angels.

Why snow angels? Turns out the celebration stemmed from a slight misunderstanding between the players and Capitals promotions staff before the game, according to Raiders Coach Joshua Potter.

“They were giving examples of what they could do to celebrate, and one of them said, ‘You know, nobody has ever done a snow angel before. I’d love to see a snow angel. If anybody scores and does a snow angel, you’ll get the game puck,’ ” Potter said.

“I think they misunderstood and they thought if anybody does a snow angel they get a game puck, not just the scorer,” he said. “If you notice, a couple of players from the other team are doing it too.”

The story had a happy ending.

Despite the misunderstanding, each Raider was presented his own official game-night puck.

Maybe the angels were on their side.

Hotel hijinks

An ESPN reporter was convinced by an unknown caller Thursday to break out her Florida hotel room’s windows because the building was purportedly on fire.

According to a Gainesville Police Department report posted on The Smoking Gun.com, ESPNU reporter Elizabeth Moreau was in her room at a Hilton Garden Inn when a male caller advised “that the hotel was on fire.” The man first directed Moreau, 27, to “lay towels down at the bottom of her front door to prevent smoke from entering her room.” The caller then directed Moreau to use the toilet lid cover to break out the window.

“She then went to the window and used it to break out the window. The window was broken and the toilet lid broke upon falling to the ground outside,” police reported. It is unknown who was responsible for the hoax, which police have classified a “suspicious incident.”

Moreau, in Gainesville to cover a women’s volleyball match between the University of Florida and the University of Tennessee, told police that the caller then advised “that’s what she gets for being a bad ex-wife.” At this point, Moreau realized she had been pranked.

It took her long enough.

Overkill?

It’s almost a stereotype ... European soccer fans arrested for violence. But in a recent case from Italy, three Lazio fans might have carried things a bit far when they were arrested at Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday for possession of dangerous weapons.

According to ANSA news agency, the three men - aged 20, 23 and 27 - were apprehended by police near the stadium after an officer spotted a machete under a seat.

Following a search, police also found baseball bats, knives, sticks, two clubs, a tennis racket and a ski mask.

Wait ... a tennis racket? Sounds like that Sesame Street song: “Which one of these is not like the others ?”Quote of the day “We worked on it hard this week, and the guys blocked it up well. The rest, I was just running.” Joe Adams on his 97-yard punt return touchdown against Mississippi on Saturday

Sports, Pages 14 on 10/25/2010

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