Cobden – Matt Schroeder should have purchased a lottery ticket Friday as it turned out to be one of those once in a lifetime days.
Not only did he backstop his hockey team to its ninth consecutive league championship, but he managed to get to the Pembroke Regional Hospital just minutes before his wife, Kelly gave birth to their second child.
Matt plays nets for the Eganville Hockey League champion Calver Lumber team and he was between the pipes in the championship win Friday night which extended into three overtime periods and lasted almost three hours.
Before he left his Cobden home for the game, Kelly mentioned she felt like she might be going into labour for the birth of their second child, whose due date was March 27.
“She stayed home because she basically knew if I left, she was going to have to go to the hospital,” he said.
Asked if his departure to play hockey caused any issues, he replied, “No, she was pretty good about it, because everything happened so quick.”
“We didn’t think everything was going to happen that quick,” Kelly added.
“We thought we had until Saturday,” he said. “Then it was like 6 o’clock, before the game that this might be happening now, and it was a little too late to get a spare for me.”
Kelly said she was in labour for 26 hours for the birth of their first child, a daughter, Wren, who is now 22 months old, so she figured they had some time to spare.
“But this one was about six from start to finish,” she said.
During the game, Matt took time to signal his mom in the stands and she just smiled back at him.
“I did sort of a cradling gesture and she just smiled and kind of shrugged her shoulders,” he said. Then during the break between the second and third OT, she notified him that Kelly was in fact in the hospital, preparing to give birth to their second daughter, Eden.
He jokingly told his teammates they needed to hurry up and score the winning goal.
“They all knew before the game that I might be missing the birth of my child for the game,” Matt explained. “Then when it went into overtime, there was a joke going around the dressing room that we were naming the baby after whoever scored.”
When the game finally ended late in the third OT period, he spent some time chatting with Calabogie goalie Dan Charbonneau, and they shared mutual comments on how well they had played. After the team photos, he headed to Pembroke and arrived with 12 minutes to spare.
“I was walking in and basically within minutes they had to call the doctor and nurse because the baby was on its way. The doctor didn’t even make it in time. He walked in and the baby was in our hands.”
The Schroeders knew they were having another daughter, but had not picked a name for her prior to her birth.
“I asked Kelly if she had a name yet and she said no. I said she looked like an Eden and they settled on that.”
Eden Jo Schroeder weighed in at a healthy nine pounds and was 18.5 inches long. The Schroeders said everybody is healthy and they were back home on Sunday. And big sister Wren adores her new sister.
“She just loves her,” Kelly said.
“She can’t stop giving her little kisses and stuff, and rubbing her cheeks,” Matt added.
The proud grandparents are Bev and Glen Recoskie, also of Cobden, and Murray Schroeder of Kemptville, and Jodie McDonald of Petawawa.
