Miami TV reporter stiff-arms jubilant hockey fan trying to crash live report

LAS VEGAS — A Miami television reporter waved off a rowdy, jubilant hockey fan after Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, giving a forceful stiff-arm to a man who attempted to crash her live shot.

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Samantha Rivera, reporting live for WFOR-TV after the Florida Panthers lost a 7-2 decision in Las Vegas, stood her ground and shoved a Golden Knights fan who tried to force himself into the picture at T-Mobile Arena.

Rivera did not miss a beat, pushing the boorish fan out of the way and saying, “Let’s get to the highlights.”

“Listen, I don’t give a damn what team you’re rooting for,” Rivera later wrote on Twitter. “Get the hell out of my face when I’m working and respect that I’m here to do my job. Excited to get back home to some classy #Panthers fans for game 3!!”

According to the Miami Herald, it was the second consecutive postgame where a Golden Knights fan attempted to disrupt a report from a Miami television station.

On Saturday, WPLG reporter Clay Ferraro also stiff-armed a Golden Knights fan who made an obscene gesture to the camera after the Panthers’ loss in Game 1.

Rivera told Sports Illustrated on Tuesday that she had been watching the fan while she prepared to go live.

“I could see the guy and another guy out of the corner of my eye. It looked like they were staring at us right before we were about to go live, and I think at one point I saw them pointing at us, too,” Rivera told the magazine. “But we were already on camera, and I was afraid they were gonna take me too early, so I wanted to tell my photographer something, but I couldn’t, so I just kept my eye on him.

“And then I don’t know if I heard him or felt him, but I sensed him, and the second I did, my arm just came out. It’s not gonna happen! I was annoyed.”

Rivera added that she was glad she prevented the fan from ruining her report.

“I think a quarter of his face got in, so it did feel good,” Rivera told Sports Illustrated. “It was like, “I did my job. I got him out of the way. He never got his five seconds of fame or whatever he wanted.”

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series shifts to South Florida on Thursday.

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