Buffalo Beauts player Grace Klienbach coaches Little Flyers team to historic national championship win

Standing behind the bench on April 4, watching her team eke out a 2-1 win for the U14 Tier 2 Girls USA Hockey title, Philadelphia Little Flyers coach Grace Klienbach felt so anxious she wanted to throw up.

Despite playing in high-stakes games at the college and professional levels, Klienbach can’t remember ever feeling that way. As a first-year head coach watching 12- to 14-year-old girls do the unexpected, Klienbach felt invested in a way she never has before.

And when the team emerged victorious after the stressful final minutes where the opponent, down one, pulled its goalie, Klienbach screamed “like crazy.”

Her girls did not come into the season with national championship expectations. They had an up-and-down season, winning games they should have lost and losing games they should have won, Klienbach said. They knew they were talented, but nothing they tried seemed to make things click.

Team members were going through big life adjustments. A group of them had transitioned from a different program. Some had to make long commutes, coming from other states so that they could play at a competitive level. And others were freshmen getting used to high school. Klienbach herself was still adjusting to being a head coach.

“There were a lot of things that I was still learning and it was definitely a learning curve of just, like, on-ice decisions, line decisions,” Klienbach said.

The Little Flyers finally gained some confidence when they went to Colorado and held their own against Tier 1 teams, but they still made the national championship playoffs on a technicality. A team in their district was hosting the championship, receiving an automatic bid. The Little Flyers got the extra spot that was vacated.

Klienbach and her assistant coaches emphasized the opportunity the team had. Not many teams across the country make it to the playoffs, Klienbach told the players, so they may as well make the most of it. They also mentioned the team had the chance to make history if it won the tournament, not only for the Philadelphia Little Flyers program but also for the entire Atlantic District, which includes Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

The girls responded to the challenge.

“I think myself, the whole coaching staff, all the parents were all blown away by how much they came together because we all knew that they could play really good hockey, Klienbach said, “but it was, no joke, the best hockey I’ve ever seen any of them play ever.”

Goalie Ava Re made 42 saves on 43 shots over the last two games. She knew she was playing well — she had a “gut feeling.” However, she had no clue just how well she did until her parents told her to check the stats, and she saw the .960 save percentage.

Meanwhile, Jayne Gamburg and Alyssa Viola provided the points that secured the victory, with Viola assisting on Gamburg’s game-winning goal. By the end of the weekend, the two of them led the tournament in points with eight each.

It was cool that they made history, especially when people congratulated them at school for it, “which was super weird because girls hockey isn’t that big,” Re said. However, they were driven just as much by the desire to survive the weekend so they could greet Klienbach with good news.

“At nationals, we knew Grace wasn’t gonna be there for the full weekend,” Gamburg said. “But she said she would come back Monday for the championship game.”

As a professional hockey player with the Buffalo Beauts, Kleinbach had to miss practices and games to participate in her own while also working as an assistant coach and part-time athletic trainer for Neumann University. Missing her was hard on the team, the girls said.

“We did rely on her during game time to get us hyped up to keep us motivated,” Little Flyers captain Ange Bruno said. “But when she wasn’t there, it was because she was playing professional hockey, which is super, super cool, and we wanted to win for her when she wasn’t there.”

The team is as proud of Klienbach as she is of them. Re, Gamburg and Bruno said they bragged to their friends that their coach is a professional hockey player.

At 28 years old, Klienbach clicks well with the girls who she said are “starting to become little adults.” She jumps in with their dance circles, teaches them important lessons for success and encourages them when they’re up or down.

Most importantly, she gives them all hope for the future.

“I never really knew there was a women’s national league,” Gamburg said. “It kinda shows that you can get somewhere after college, so it’s not like you work this hard to get nothing out of it … like with boys hockey, they go to college and they can get drafted to the NHL.”

Most of the girls aspire to play Division I hockey, Klienbach said. For example, Gamburg’s highest goal is to play at Penn State. From there, the next step has always been a huge jump — the Olympics. Now, they hope they can be like Klienbach someday and play professionally.

The steps to get there still are hard. There aren’t many girls teams in the region that compete at a high level. Re commutes an hour each way from Maryland while Bruno commutes two hours each way from New Jersey. The team has to travel all over the country for games, which is fun but expensive, and it’s hard to keep teams together because of the obstacles.

It feels like momentum is shifting the right way, though, Bruno said. She was encouraged when she heard the Philadelphia Flyers extended an invitation to the team so they could honor them at the game. She said it’s a good sign that NHL teams are getting behind women’s hockey.

After being recognized on the Jumbotron, the girls received congratulations from people in the suites and in line for soft pretzels. Bruno hopes that the publicity has a trickle down effect.

“The way that we look at Grace, the way she played college hockey and she played pro, I want those little girls to look at us and say if they can win nationals and they can play at a high level, then we can, too,” Bruno said.