Hockey-Loving Couple Name Son After Penguins' Phil Kessel
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- After 53 minutes and change, Phil Kessel broke through, and the Penguins went home Monday night with a 1-0 win in a nail-biting Game 2 against the Ottawa Senators.
Nicole and Adam Hillman can relate.
Nicole had entered Butler Memorial Hospital at 8 a.m. Mother's Day, the day before the game, and waited seven hours before giving birth to a baby boy they have named Kessel.
"My husband's starting to say, 'How about Sidney?'" Nicole recalls. "And then, before I knew it, he said, 'Kessel,' and I thought, 'Hmm.' And the more I thought about it, I thought, I can't think of a better boy's name than Kessel."
But seven hours is a long wait.
"As I'm sitting there, my husband says, 'I know what to do,'" Nicole said.
"So, I went on my phone, I found this," Adam adds.
He enters the "Let's Go Pens" audio site, "And what do you know, he says, "Niki's contractions began to pick up. And it wasn't long before baby Kessel was here."
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Baby Kessel seemed to be listening to the game the next day.
"And sure enough, as he's listening, Kessel hits that winning goal," Nicole laughs.
Another interesting fact: Kessel was born at 6:53 on Mother's Day. And Phil Kessel scored the game winning goal with 6:55 left in the game the following day.
Just in case you didn't think the hockey gods were smiling on the family, Nicole adds that in the hospital, "I have my bed, my husband has his bed. Sure enough, as he's walking by, he says, 'Oh my goodness.' And I say, 'What?' He turns around and points at his shirt, and he has a Kessel T-shirt on, and I see 81. And I look down at the bed, and I'm on bed 81!"
And that puts the magic number... on ice.