AHL Player Borrows Opponent’s Car and Drives Six Hours Through Snowstorm for First Child’s Birth

With a little help from an opponent, Pierre-Cedric Labrie was able see the birth of his son.

Milwaukee Admirals winger Pierre-Cedric Labrie would have missed the birth of his first child if an opposing player didn’t answer the phone in the middle of the night. 

Labrie shared the whole story with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and it’s a doozy. 

Labrie and the Admirals took a bus from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday for a game Sunday against the Griffins. Labrie’s girlfriend, Jana Roy (Patrick Roy’s daughter), texted him on the way to say she was having early signs of going into labor but didn’t think it would amount to much. Wrong. She woke Labrie up with a phone call a 2 a.m. to say her water broke. 

Knowing the clock was running, Labrie starting frantically searching for ways to get to Milwaukee. A 6:30 a.m. flight to Chicago wouldn’t do him much good and no cab drivers would take him all the way to Wisconsin. Labrie decided to call a teammate who used to play in Grand Rapids and ask if he knew anybody he could borrow a car from.

That’s where Griffins backup goalie Tom McCollum comes in. McCollum was kind enough to lend Labrie his pickup truck. 

“It was kind of funny the way he said it,” McCollum told the Journal Sentinel. “He was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a question; it’s totally cool if you say no,’ and just kind of explained the situation of what happened.”

As difficult as it was to secure transportation, the trip itself was even harder. Western Michigan was getting pounded by lake-effect snow, which made the going slow. But Labrie was able to get to the hospital in Milwaukee with just over a half hour to spare and witness the birth of a son, Lionel.

McCollum and the Griffins were in Milwaukee on Wednesday, so Labrie was able to give him back the truck (with a full tank of gas).