In his first three seasons with the Harvard program, Joakim
Flygh has helped the Crimson earn back-to-back Ivy League and ECAC
Hockey regular-season titles in his first two seasons in
Cambridge.
In 2009-10, Harvard won its 13th Beanpot title and earned its
eighth berth in the NCAA tournament, going 14-4-3 on home ice.
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.