Jordan Eberle’s and Martin Jones’ wives both gave birth to baby boys last Friday.
The next night, their husbands delivered in their own way.
Eberle scored his first goal of the season and Jones made 32 saves to lead the Seattle Kraken to a 3-1 victory against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Kraken are scheduled to open a three-game trip at Calgary on Tuesday night.
“Obviously, midseason you have a baby there’s a lot going through your head, but once you get out there you kind of just zone into it a bit,” said Eberle, who has been through this once before.
For Jones, it was a first.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” Jones said. “Just tried to wrap my head around playing hockey (Saturday) and sometimes when you’re not thinking too much things work out for you.”
Jones is 3-2-0 since replacing an injured Philipp Grubauer (lower body) midway through the third period of an Oct. 21 game at Colorado.
Eberle said their baby was 10 days overdue and he wasn’t sure whether the Kraken would still be at home when “go” time came.
“This is special. Something you always remember,” Eberle said. “I’ll be able to tell him I scored after he was born.
“I think more importantly, we got the win.”
Jaden Schwartz had a goal and an assist for the Kraken. The victory could have been even more decisive had Seattle not had two goals overturned by video reviews in a three-minute span midway through the second period.
“We did keep our foot on the gas, but we sagged with the puck a little bit,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “You have different sequences where you give the puck back after defending well and it comes right back at you. Now you have to defend again.
“To the guys’ credit, they did defend well. When we needed a save, Jonesy was there. We did a lot of little things right in terms of winning some of the right battles, including faceoffs at key times.”
The Flames suffered just their second loss in seven games this season Saturday, dropping a 3-2 decision to visiting Edmonton. Zach Hyman scored twice for the Oilers and Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists.
Mikael Backlund and Brett Ritchie scored and Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves for the Flames, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.
“It just wasn’t good enough from the whole team,” Backlund said. “We can play better than that. … We know that we were sloppy.”
Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau said the game came down to a “few bad bounces.”
“We were up 2-1 and they scored two quick goals. But I thought overall we’re a good team. I think we know what we can do. That’s all it is,” Huberdeau said. “They’re good offensively, but I think if we play in their zone that’s how we’re going to beat them.”
Calgary center Nazem Kadri had a six-game point streak come to an end. He had four goals and five assists during the streak.
–Field Level Media
