Joakim Flygh is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Harvard women’s ice hockey program and has helped the Crimson earn back-to-back Ivy League and ECAC Hockey-regular season titles in his first two seasons in Cambridge.

Flygh helped the Crimson to a 19-10-3 overall record in 2008-09, as Harvard won 12 straight ECAC Hockey contests to conclude the regular season. Flygh and assistant coach Melanie Ruzzi guided the team to a 3-0-1 record in the first four games of season, while head coach Katey Stone coached Team USA to the gold medal at the Four Nations Cup.

In 2007-08, Flygh led Harvard to three victories against Boston College, St. Lawrence and Clarkson during Stone’s tenure as the head coach of the United States Under-18 Team at the World Championships in January 2008. During that year, Harvard became the second team in ECAC Hockey history to win all of its games against league teams (22-0-0). The squad also won the Beanpot, ECAC regular-season and ECAC tournament titles en route to the program’s fifth Frozen Four appearance.

Flygh’s off-ice responsibilities at Harvard include coordinating recruiting, monitoring the squad’s academic progress and acting as a liaison between the team and the school’s admissions office.

Flygh joined the Crimson staff in 2007 after spending three seasons as an assistant at Minnesota Duluth. There he worked with the Bulldog defensemen and penalty-kill unit.

In Flygh’s three seasons in Duluth, the Bulldogs made the NCAA tournament every year, advanced to the NCAA title game in 2007 and posted a total record of 72-26-9. Over Flygh’s tenure, UMD ranked fourth nationally in goals allowed per game and third in penalty killing.
During his first season in 2004-05, the UMD penalty kill allowed just 16 goals in 206 power plays, operating at a 92.2-percent efficiency.

Before taking the position at Minnesota Duluth, Flygh worked three seasons as an assistant coach, including one as a graduate assistant, with the men’s ice hockey team at New England College. He helped the Pilgrims to a combined 53-23-4 record and three second-place league finishes during his three years behind the bench.

Flygh was a standout defenseman as an undergraduate at New England and was the Pilgrims’ defensive player of the year. He went on to play professional hockey in Sweden for the Lysekil Vikings.

A native of Tyringe, Sweden, Flygh is a 2000 graduate of New England College with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He earned a master’s degree in organizational management from New England in 2002.