Omark charted some new territory when it comes to the shootout in an exhibition game between his native Sweden and Switzerland.

He skates in at an angle, cuts across the front of the net and gets the goalie to bite with a simple deke – before lightly flicking the puck up and over the sprawling netminder.

Cheeky!

There have been some really nice shootout goals in the NHL since they brought that part of the game into action, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone pull, or try to pull this move.

I’m going to guess that Omark watches a bit of soccer.

Here’s Senegalese footballer El Hadji Diouf with an example of the soccer version of the cheeky penalty:

If pulled off successfully, this is a play that can leave a goalie quite embarrassed. Of course, that’s not always how it turns out.

Back to the topic at hand though: Linus Omark!

The Oilers drafted him in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL entry draft. Right now, the 22-year-old plays for Lilea HF in the Swedish Elite League and is four points back of the league lead in scoring (23 goals and 55 points in 53 games).

The scouting report on Omark at Hockey’s Future is a good one, and says he’s planning on moving to North America next season, once his contract in Sweden is up. Maybe something to look forward to for Oil fans?

Here’s another sick goal by Omark…look how he takes the hit to make the (unreal) play!

The Beard is Back!

The Detroit Red Wings are looking to a long-standing tradition in hockey for their playoff theme as they look to repeat as Stanley Cup champions this spring – the playoff beard.

Those of you that have been with iNews880.com from the beginning might remember me dabbling with the playoff beard last year during the Wings Cup run (Looking back, I can’t believe I did that, nor can I believe how long it got!).

This year marks the 18th straight trip to the postseason for Detroit – “Here we grow again,” said Red Wings Senior Vice President of Business Affairs Steve Violetta at a lunch where they announced the theme.

The Wings have had their struggles in the second half of the season, but go into the playoffs looking to become the first team to win back-to-back Stanley Cups since they did it in 1997 and 1998.

Lets go Red Wings!!!!!

Last week we had a weird story from NCAA women’s basketball, this week – a cool one.

Oklahoma University star centre Courtney Paris has promised to pay back her scholarship if the Sooners don’t take home the national championship.

Scholarship money up here in Canada isn’t like scholarship money down south though – if OU loses, Paris will be giving back almost $64,000, according to reports!

The Sooners are taking on the Louisville Cardinals this Sunday in Final Four action. The other game pits Stanford against Connecticut.

Talk about a costly loss! And for those of you who think Courtney Paris might not pay up, her sister/teammate Ashley Paris told the Daily Oklahoman:

“If anything horrible goes wrong, I’ll hold her accountable for paying it back.”

Go Sooners?

Role Models

Like it or not, professional athletes are seen as role models for countless kids around the world.

Recently, Brazilian soccer legend Pele used a former rival’s name when talking about players that are bad examples to the youth…and Diego Maradona, now the manager of Argentina, had a very interesting reply.

Setanta Sports reports that Maradona, who had drug and alcohol issues over the course of his career, responded by saying “Pele lost his virginity to a man.”

What?! Is that your best comeback? The thing that made me laugh was another account of the event that quoted him as saying Pele “made his debut with a bloke.” His debut?!

For his part, Pele says this is just a rumor that Maradona started out of jealousy. I don’t even really know what to say about this whole thing…I hope the feud continues!

Oh, what a soap opera this could turn into!