Video: The most adorable youth hockey goal celebration ever?

Yahoo! Sports

Thu Oct 21 09:08am EDT

Video: The most adorable youth hockey goal celebration ever?

Like other NHL teams, the Washington Capitals host a "Mites on Ice" youth hockey mini-game during the between-periods intermission of home games.

On Tuesday night, the Reston (Va.) Raiders were selected to participate in an intra-squad mites game; and in an arena that's seen its share of boisterous goal celebrations from the likes of Alex Ovechkin (notes), the Raiders (ages 8 years old and younger) unleashed a unique celebration of their own after each score -- dropping to the ice and, to the delight of the crowd, making snow angels.

Hockey snow angels @ Yahoo! Video

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

[Video: Icelandic players' hilarious choreographed goal celebration]

The Caps officials were pumping up the young players, talking about how big goal celebrations are encouraged in the between-periods amusement. "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,'" recalled Potter.

"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."

[Rewind: Goal post blocks victory celebration for tall athlete]

The video above was actually the second goal scored in the game; here are both goals (scored by the same player, Gabe Dombrowski):

The fans loved it, the players had a blast and the story had a happy ending: Despite his players having misunderstood the whole "game puck" offer, Potter said the Capitals staff went to the team dressing room and presented each Raider with his own official game-night puck to commemorate the event.

Obviously, the angels were on their side. "Maybe the 'snow angel' will be the next big thing . . . maybe even bigger than the 'hot stick,'" said Potter, citing Ovechkin's most famous celebration.

Thanks to reader Dan Pollock for the video. Visit DanPollock.com.

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