Former United States Olympian Molly Engstrom, who has spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, has been named the new women’s ice hockey coach at the University of Maine.
She will replace Richard Reichenbach, who resigned in July along with his assistant coach and wife, Sara Reichenbach.
Engstrom inherits a team that went 15-19-1 last season, 12-13-1 in Hockey East. Her four-year contract will pay her $80,000 this coming season, $90,000 in 2023-24, $100,000 in 2024-25 and in her fourth year will revert to the university’s across-the-board increases, according to UMaine director of athletics Ken Ralph.
“I feel blessed to have this opportunity. I am really grateful,” said Engstrom. “I am looking forward to being a head coach for the first time and I also feel a connection to the area.”
The 39-year-old Engstrom was one of three finalists for the head coaching job at St. Cloud State, but the job went to former University of North Dakota head coach Brian Idalski.
Idalski replaced Steve Macdonald, who went 21-60-8 overall in his three seasons at St. Cloud State.
“After growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, this feels good,” said the 39-year-old Engstrom, who grew up in Siren with a population of 777, according to the 2020 census.
Reichenbach was slated to make $69,999.96 this season. It would have been his 10th year as the head coach.
Ralph said this is in line with the university’s desire to increase salaries for their coaches.
“We’ve done a real good job filling our head coaching vacancies lately and Molly fits right in,” Ralph said.
“We talked to a lot of people at USA Hockey and people in the pro leagues and Molly’s name kept coming up. They talked about her ability to establish a positive culture. Her ability to establish that culture and a team identity put her on a different level.”
Engstrom’s resume is an impressive one.
She is a two-time Olympic medalist (2006, 2010), and she was named the best defenseman in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, as her team captured the silver medal. She earned a bronze medal in 2006 in Turin, Italy.
She played in six International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships for Team USA and those teams won four gold medals and two silvers.
She was a first team All-American and two-time Western Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Year at the University of Wisconsin and a top 10 finalist for the 2005 Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the nation’s top women’s hockey player.
She played professional hockey for Minneapolis, Toronto and Boston in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and the National Women’s Hockey League between 2007-13 and two of her teams won championships.
Between 2014-16, she was the girls varsity hockey coach and assistant athletic director at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire.
Former UMaine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead is the boys hockey coach at Kimball Union, and she said she learned a lot from watching his practices and games.
She then played and coached in the Swedish Women’s (professional) Hockey League from 2016 to 2018 and her Djurgarden IF team captured the 2017 championship.
She has served as the International Ice Hockey Federation U18 High Performance Camp Coach/Ambassador since 2016 and was a USA Hockey Development scout since January 2019.
She earned a Masters of Sports Administration from the Russian International Olympic University in 2014.
Ralph said he met with the team and asked them what they wanted from a head coach.
“A number of them said they would be excited to have a coach who had been through the Division I experience as a player and had played at a high level in order to understand the demands on a Division I athlete,” Ralph said. “Her playing experience speaks for itself. She is one of the best players who has ever skated.”
Reichenbach compiled a record of 105-155-28 during his nine seasons behind the UMaine bench.
His team was 72-117-24 in Hockey East regular season games.
He led his teams to three consecutive berths in the Hockey East semifinals as the Black Bears went 4-0 in quarterfinal games, all on the road, to reach the semis.
Ralph said alums and members of the North American hockey community applauded the hiring.
“They are excited for her to have this opportunity,” Ralph said.
She played for 1980 Team USA Olympic hockey star Mark Johnson at the University of Wisconsin and with the 2010 Olympic team. Johnson is the coach at Wisconsin and has guided the Badgers to six national titles while being named national Coach of the Year four times.
“I have a lot to be able to draw from, including somebody like Mark Johnson. I can’t even start to explain the impact he had on me and my game through those four or five years,” she said.
She is excited about continuing her own learning curve and said her blueprint for success begins in the defensive zone.
“We will play tough in the defensive zone. We will have good puck-moving defensemen and we will keep it simple,” she said. “We will have a fast-skating team that will control the puck.”
She pointed out that it will be important for her players to win the net front battles at both ends of the ice.
She is confident she can land top-notch recruits and contend for Hockey East championships.
“You have to find players that you want. Orono isn’t for everybody but neither is Boston College, Wisconsin or Minnesota,” she said. “You have to be diligent. They’re going to spend 90 percent of their time with their teammates so we have to sell the product. What we can do for them and their development is so pertinent at this point in their lives.”