Before Julianna Matos and Jason Hammond embarked on the nine-and-a-half-hour drive from Lake Placid, N.Y. to Pittsburgh with plans of watching the Penguins play on Feb. 15 vs. Philadelphia, the couple made a bright pink sign that read:
"We're expecting a baby Penguins fan!"
But by the time they actually made it into PPG Paints Arena on Feb. 24 vs. New Jersey, the sign had to be adjusted to say, "We just HAD a baby Penguins fan!"
"What a Story!"
And the story behind their daughter Natalie's arrival is unreal. Even Sidney Crosby thinks so, as evidenced by the personalization he wrote on the jersey the Penguins presented Julianna and Jason with.
!
"I'm telling her birth story until I'm dead, probably," Julianna said with a laugh. "She made us miss Sid Crosby's 500th career goal, and I will never let her live that down."
It all started around the holidays. Julianna has been a Penguins fan ever since she was in middle school, after a boy from out of town that she had a crush on got her into the team. While their puppy love didn't last, her love for the Penguins did, as they went on to win the 2009 Stanley Cup.
Julianna has been wanting to go to a game for years, but it just never worked out - until this season. After she got pregnant, Jason wanted to do something special for Julianna for Christmas, so he got her tickets to the game against the Devils on Dec. 21 to finally make her longtime dream come true.
But when they were about an hour and a half outside of Pittsburgh, Julianna got the notification that the game had been postponed due to COVID-related issues affecting New Jersey. So right away, they bought tickets for Pittsburgh's next game, which was later that week against Philadelphia.
"We were like okay, we'll stay in town a couple extra days, we'll see at least one game and we'll see if we can come back for that postponed game," Julianna said. "Well, then the league postponed all games."
They ended up getting rescheduled over a week apart in February, so with a baby set to arrive at the beginning of April and a lot of things to take care of financially, the young couple decided to attend just one of the new dates and only stay for a night instead of two.
They chose the Feb. 15 matchup against the Flyers, and with the stage set for Crosby to score his 500th NHL goal, they were especially excited for the game. Julianna and Jason departed early that morning and got into town around 3:30 PM. They decided to explore the city before checking into their hotel located just a quarter mile from the rink.
"My boyfriend has been such a big fan this whole season that he started joining a bunch of Facebook groups," Julianna said. "He was asking for recommendations on where to get apparel and where to eat while we're in town. This guy told him to check out Goodwill on East Carson, they have a sports section and you can usually get pretty affordable stuff there."
So they pulled into the Goodwill parking lot, Julianna stepped out of the car…and her water broke.
"Only 33 weeks pregnant, and we are completely out of town. No car seat, nothing…not prepared for a baby!" Julianna said. "And this was the same day of the game, so I'm like, I'm going to miss the game again!"
Jason took Julianna to nearby UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, which is where she ended up watching the Penguins captain make history before giving birth in the early hours of the morning.
"I made the nurses turn the TV on in the triage room, like I'm not missing this!" Julianna said with a laugh. "My daughter wanted to be a natural-born Steel City fan. I started pushing at 1:07 AM, and she came out at 1:26 AM."
Their beautiful baby daughter was breathing on her own from the beginning despite being almost two months premature, and continued to improve throughout her two-week stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). "She's doing fantastic!" said Julianna, who stayed in the Ronald McDonald House of Pittsburgh during that time.
When hospital staff came into the room to ask about filling out the birth certificate, Natalie's parents made a game-time decision about her middle name on the spot, which was originally going to be Antonia in honor of Julianna's younger brother Tony and her Dominican roots.
"We didn't want to take that away, but with everything that happened, we were like, we've got to do something," Julianna said. "So we decided to hyphenate it to Antonia-Sidney."
A few days later, hospital staff again came into the room, this time with media consent forms for Julianna to sign…right before they presented her with a jersey from her (middle) namesake that Crosby had personalized to Natalie.
"Oh my gosh, I was in tears," Julianna said. "It would not have been possible without my daughter trying to make an early arrival. She must have just known that Magee partnered with the Penguins and that we get a little gift bag and it says, 'a great day for a new baby.' She was trying to save Mom some money on buying her a Penguins onesie (laughs)."
The Penguins also surprised Julianna and Jason with tickets to Pittsburgh's game against New Jersey that following week so that she would finallybe able to make it to a game after everything she had been through.
"I told Jason back in November before any of this happened that when we step foot into that arena, you need to get my reaction, because I'm going to be like a kid in a candy store," Julianna said. "And now with everything else, I broke down into tears when I saw the team go onto the ice. Everything that they've been able to do for us, like getting us into a game after so many years of trying and so many bumps in the road, to get tickets from the Pens organization themselves is so great."
