It was a golden weekend for Philadelphia-area hockey, as both the Philadelphia Little Flyers 16U Klienbach and the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers 19U AA Black squads captured National Championships in thrilling fashion.

For Emma Podulka '27 and her 16U teammates, the path to the title in Springfield, VA, was anything but easy. Their semifinal matchup pitted them against Belle Tire, a powerhouse from Detroit, Michigan. Down 2-0 early, the Flyers didn’t flinch—instead, they responded with three unanswered goals, stunning the national contenders and punching their ticket to the championship game.

Waiting for them was the Steel City Selects from Pittsburgh, a team that had already bested the Little Flyers earlier in the week with a 4-1 win in pool play. Fueled by the lessons of that loss and the momentum from their dramatic semifinal win, the Little Flyers flipped the script with a dominant 3-0 performance in the title game, securing the National Championship in shutout style.

Not to be outdone, Skylar Saldutti '26 the 19U squad authored their own dramatic ending in the 1A title game. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead over the Tri-City Eagles (MD), the Flyers found themselves in a dogfight.Regulation ended in a 2-2 deadlock, but the Jr. Flyers didn’t need long in overtime to finish the job.

Just 33 seconds into the extra period, the team scored, clinching a 3-2 victory.