BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) — Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin heard his name over the arena speakers, looked up at the scoreboard and broke into a smile upon seeing his fiancee waving to the fans from a suite on Wednesday night.
It was a moment Dahlin had long dreamed of: having Carolina Matovac back in Buffalo and attending her first Sabres game since her heart failed while the couple vacationed in France last summer.
As the crowd cheered, Dahlin joined his teammates as they slapped their sticks on the boards during a break in the first period of Buffalo’s 4-3 overtime loss to Boston.
“Unbelievable, the support we’ve had for a long time now,” Dahlin said. “Getting this today, it was special, for sure.”
Matovac being able to travel was the next big step in her recovery after receiving a lifesaving heart transplant. She arrived in Buffalo this week after spending much of the past seven months recuperating in the couple’s native Sweden.
Her condition was kept under wraps before Dahlin revealed what happened upon reporting for training camp. In a message posted on the team’s website, Dahlin detailed how Matovac nearly died.
He said Matovac felt sick for several days before her heart failed, saying she required CPR on “multiple occasions and up to a couple of hours at a time.”
“Without her receiving lifesaving CPR, the result would have been unimaginable. It is hard to even think about the worst-case scenario,” Dahlin wrote.
Matovac spent weeks on life support before receiving a new heart. In January, Matovac revealed that she was pregnant when her heart failed, adding that her unborn child played “a vital role” in the discovery of the problem. The fetus, however, did not survive.
“You will always hold a special place in our hearts as our first baby, even though we never had the chance to meet. Our love for you is endless,” she wrote on what was supposed to be her due date. “If it weren’t for my worries about you, we might never have called for help and gone to the hospital.”
Dahlin made a few brief trips home this season to be with Matovac.
He has shown leadership and determination amid the personal crisis, helping to lead a turnaround for Buffalo, which is on the cusp of ending an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
With the defenseman second on the team with 65 points, the Sabres are on a 33-6-4 run that has vaulted them from last place in the Eastern Conference in early December to a tie for first.
