A family affair: Buffalo Beauts rookie Julianna Iafallos unexpected path to the pros also brought

When Julianna (Juls) Iafallo made her NWHL debut with the Beauts in early October, most of her family and friends didn’t have to travel far to watch her play.

Her father, Tom Iafallo, invited anyone who wanted to attend to a pregame gathering at his family bar, The Towne House in Hamburg, N.Y., for roast beef, wings and other Buffalo staples. Then they all crammed into a couple of buses and headed straight to the HarborCenter, not far from where Julianna grew up south of Buffalo in Eden. Iafallo scored the first goal of her NWHL career against the Connecticut Whale that afternoon, and when she looked up and saw familiar faces cheering wildly in the crowd, she had to pause for a moment and smile.

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“Scoring your first pro goal in front of your family is pretty unique,” Iafallo said earlier this month while sitting outside the Beauts’ training room after a mid-morning practice. “There was almost a full section occupied in the HarborCenter by my family and friends. When I scored and looked over, there were so many people cheering and I was just like, ‘Wow.’”

“It’s awesome, she’s breaking ground in a women’s hockey league here in her hometown,” Tom says. “For me, it’s great as a dad because I get to watch. I thought we would end after college, and I keep getting more years on it.”

Before signing a contract with the Beauts this past June, Iafallo spent four years at Ohio State where, as a senior captain, she helped the Buckeyes reach the NCAA Frozen Final Four for the first time in school history. She finished that season with 27 points on 12 goals and 15 assists.

The 22-year-old says her goal was always to play Division I college hockey, get her degree and stay involved with the game somehow. After going undrafted in 2017 and graduating from college, she was ready to “move on with her life, get a real job and go to graduate school.”

Beauts GM Nik Fattey had other plans.

“She wasn’t drafted, but she had a great senior season,” he says. “She came to our rookie camp in the spring and we ended up signing her. I’ve known (Juls) forever and she has skated in my summer league and at different camps over the years. She’s always been super skilled and has great hockey sense.”

Even though Iafallo says her long-term plan is to attend grad school for physical therapy, she’s content to be back in Eden, living in the house she grew up in and playing hockey.

“I was ready to come home,” Iafallo says. “And it’s awesome because there are family members who have never seen me play before. Columbus, Ohio was too far for some of them to drive. And the division we were in, we played out west. So to look up and see familiar faces in the crowd, that was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.”

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While growing up in Eden, Iafallo and her older brother, Alex — who is in his second season with the Los Angeles Kings — spent a lot of time on the ice. Whether it was on a homemade patch of ice that their father set up in the backyard or at a local ice rink, they skated together as a family. Most importantly, they skated for fun.

“When they were young, I was playing a lot of hockey at the time,” Tom says. “I got back into it in my late 20s and 30s. And when I wanted to go skate, I’d just have them come with me and they just kind of jumped into it.”

“My dad loved to skate and he would always have us on the ice regardless of our age,” Julianna says. “When I first started, he had to push me more. Whereas Alex just wanted to get out on the ice. My dad took me to an open skate when I was little and I didn’t want to do it, but he said, ‘You’re good and you can keep up with these people.’ I still wouldn’t go. Then he offered me a sticker. I’d go around once and come back and he’d offer me another sticker.

“Once I hit a certain age, I forgot about the stickers.”

(Courtesy of the NWHL)

Toms says he never intended to put his kids on a track that would eventually lead them to the pros. His overall goal was to keep them active.

“The best part was that they both went to the Frozen Four and they both graduated from college,” he says. “Those are pinnacles that I am still high on and I can’t say enough about those two accomplishments. Then to both go to the pros was beyond what I was thinking.”

Iafallo confessed she often followed Alex onto the ice because he was her role model from the moment she took her first steps. Whatever Alex did, she wanted to do. But as she got more comfortable on skates and aware of her own ability, she began to own her love of the sport. And once she got to high school, she knew she was good enough to play in college. Professional hockey is a different story, but she’s beginning to learn what it takes to succeed at this level.

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“The speed is faster, the players are stronger,” explains Iafallo, who has three goals and one assist in seven games so far with the Beauts.

“Pro players will always nitpick their game. For me, it’s the corner play I need to be stronger at because I’m not one of the biggest girls on the ice. But I think we are slowly progressing to our goal, which is to win the Isobel Cup. We had a lot of different girls on the team this season and I think we’re finally in a flow where we’re meshing and everything. In the locker room, we are awesome.”

As their seasons progress on separate tracks, Iafallo says she and Alex talk a lot on the phone. They’ve always been close, so they like to be there for each other and help keep each other grounded.

“We talk hockey, but not specifics because it’s our everyday life,” she says, hours before she’ll be in the stands at KeyBank Center on Dec. 11 to watch Alex play. “So we try to support each other and say good job. But we’re also each other’s escape from hockey, too. He loves to fish and surf, so we’ll talk about that. And when I was at Ohio, we’d talk about school all the time.”

Before that game, when the Kings played the Sabres in their only matchup of the year here in Buffalo, Alex spoke with a handful of local reporters during an open skate.

“I’m very proud of Julianna,” he said. “She’s playing in the NWHL and I’m very excited for her. I don’t get to watch many of her games but when I do, it’s fun to watch her play.”

Like his sister, Alex also went undrafted. But the 24-year-old worked his way up from the college ranks at Minnesota-Duluth to make the Kings’ opening day roster in 2017. He’s now part of the Kings’ regular rotation and, when Alex came to Buffalo to play as an NHLer for the first time, Tom was more than happy to arrange a group of supporters.

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He organized a meet-up at The Town House before the game, just as he had for Julianna’s first game with the Beauts. He invited family members, friends and some of Alex’s old hockey coaches to the bar for wings and drinks before they loaded up the buses and headed to the arena to see Alex play.

Alex Iafallo's family is out in full force supporting the LA Kings in their hometown tonight! ❤️ #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/vnQ0nYuQUy

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 11, 2018

For Julianna, it was another reminder of one of the main reasons she loves hockey — it involves her whole family.

“It would always be the three of us in our backyard,” she says. “On that patch of ice. And my mom would come, too. It was always a family thing. It still is a family thing. And that’s what has made this whole experience so amazing.”

You can bet she’ll be feeling that support when the Beauts host the Minnesota Whitecaps this weekend in a doubleheader, first at KeyBank Center on Saturday and back at HarborCenter on Sunday. Buffalo currently sits four points behind Minnesota in the NWHL standings.

(Top photo courtesy of Tom Iafallo)

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