By Caroline Ingram, news staff
Just as he has been for the past eight seasons, Dave Flint will be behind the bench of one of the nation’s top women’s hockey programs for years to come. The Northeastern University women’s hockey head coach recently agreed to a contract extension with the team through the 2020-21 season.
“Coach Flint’s body of work over the last eight years has resulted in a return to national prominence for our women’s ice hockey team,” athletic director Peter Roby said. “He and his staff have recruited world-class student-athletes who have taken our program to new heights both on and off the ice, and I am thrilled to know that he will remain our head coach moving forward.”
Before Flint joined the program in 2008, there was a six-year period when the Huskies failed to post a winning season and did not qualify for conference playoffs. Since then, however, Flint has led the team to top-tier status of collegiate women’s hockey. Entering into the program, Flint recognized the obstacles that lay ahead, but embraced the challenge.
“My thought was that I was not going to instantly turn things around overnight,” Flint said. “It was going to be a process.”
A rebuilding process of sorts ensued. Flint brought with him his five years of experience at Saint Anselm College, which showed its impact soon into his Northeastern tenure. During Flint’s second year with the team, the Huskies posted a 22-win season, coming in fourth place in Hockey East.
The 2012 Hockey East Co-Coach of the Year admits that he was not sure what to expect when he took the head coaching position. The experience has been a learning process for everyone involved — from the coaching staff down to the players.
“I’ve learned to be a better communicator,” Flint said. “I also think accountability is important. If I show my team and my staff that I’m willing to put in the time and effort, then I can expect the same from them. Our kids always work hard, and my staff always works hard.”
The dedication of the coaching staff has been instrumental in recent success. Flint credits his staff for bringing in elite players who are smart and diligent hockey players.
“I was taught early on, it’s not always about the x’s and o’s; it’s about the players you have,” he said. “What we tried to do was to recruit the best student athletes that we could. I remember day one with my assistant coaches, when I told them — and still to this day my assistants hear it from me — ‘We recruit character first.’”
Flint admires the passion exhibited by his players in all aspects of their lives.
“I really feel like we’ve done a good job recruiting kids who have exemplary character,” Flint said. “Our kids are always successful in the classroom, they are committed on and off the ice, and on top of that, they are very good hockey players.”
Those recruited players include past Olympians — most notably Kendall Coyne, who as a senior won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2016, which is awarded annually to the best female hockey player in the country.
Reflecting back on his time here at Northeastern so far, Flint mentioned some of the things that stood out to him most in terms of the team’s accomplishments around the league.
“I felt like we’ve made great strides,” he said. “In 2012 and 2013 we won back-to-back Beanpots, something I’m really proud of. The program hadn’t won one [Beanpot title] since 1998.”
Additionally, the 2012 team under Flint’s guidance won the program’s first ever Hockey East regular season championship. They appeared in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history during the 2015-16 season. In that same season, they recorded the most wins (28) in a season in program history.
Looking ahead to this season and beyond, there is still a lot of hard work to be put in and daunting tasks that await.
“With our league, it’s a tough game every night,” Flint said. “Fifteen years ago in women’s hockey, you had a group of teams you were competitive with, and then you had a group of teams where you could just show up and you’d win. Nowadays there’s a lot more parity in women’s hockey. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night.”
Flint and his team are focusing on consistency for the upcoming season, which has been something they have struggled with in past seasons.
“We’ve had years where we’ve been really good, but then we’ll have lapses during the year, and we’ll miss the NCAA tournament by one game — and you look back and you’re like, ‘If we didn’t lose that one game to that team we should have beat, we would have qualified,’” Flint said. “It’s just getting the team to find that consistency.”
There will be bumps in the road, but Flint is confident in this year’s team in particular. Players like fourth-year forward McKenna Brand, who led the team in goals last season, and fourth-year forward Denisa Krisova, last year’s assist leader, are making their return to Matthews Arena for a final season.
“I think this is probably the deepest team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Flint said. “You know, we’ve had great players, but our talent would drop off. This year we’ve got a lot of talent all the way through the line-up, so there’s going to be some tough decisions.”
However, those tough decisions come with a silver lining.
“But that’s always good; when you create that competitive environment, it makes everybody work that much harder to keep their spot in the line-up, or to earn their spot in the line-up,” Flint quickly added. “That’s, again, a credit to my assistant coaches for the quality of the student athletes we are bringing in.”
The season kicks off this Saturday with an exhibition game against Concordia University. The team is eager to accomplish even more this season, and they believe in their potential to do so.
“There’s still so much more that I want to achieve,” Flint said. “We still haven’t won a conference championship, we haven’t been to the Frozen Four.”
For all the successes and accomplishments of the past, there’s still plenty of work to be done and many more banners to be raised. Flint and his squad are ready to put in the work to make those goals a reality.
Ultimately, the Huskies strive to be much more than just a consistent powerhouse team.
“Our goal is to be a top-10 [in the nation] team, and to be a household name in women’s hockey,” Flint said.
