SYRACUSE - It took more than a year to find the right person to lead Syracuse's foray into Division I women's ice hockey, but the Orange finally have their man.

Paul Flanagan, who guided the St. Lawrence women to five NCAA Frozen Fours in eight seasons, has been hired as the first head coach of the Orange program.

“It's been a long search. We've been in search mode for about a year and a half,” director of athletics Daryl Gross said Tuesday. “It was worth the wait to get the right person. I am so impressed with his credentials and his character. ...I was just nervous. Can we get this guy? He's had so much success.

“In this hockey business, people are so stuck in their province and just kind of stay there,” Gross said. “They don't really move. He was really the one that took the leap of faith. We feel like we got the best coach out of everyone we could have gotten.”

Flanagan, a former St. Lawrence defenseman and captain, recorded eight straight 20-win seasons and led the St. Lawrence women to the inaugural NCAA women's championship game in 2001, losing to Minnesota-Duluth. The Saints also won the ECAC regular-season title in 2003-04 and the 2005-06 championship outright.

“One of the things that impressed me is that the Syracuse athletics administration wants to do things the right way,” Flanagan said in a statement released by the Syracuse athletic department. “This is an opportunity to build a program the right way. You do that by bringing in quality people with character. I think it will be a lot of fun and, hopefully, something that the university and Syracuse area can be proud of.”

A 1980 St. Lawrence graduate, Flanagan began his coaching career as head coach at Canton High School in 1982. Before the 1988 season, he joined the St. Lawrence men's staff as an assistant coach and helped the Saints to two ECAC championships and NCAA tournament appearances in 1989, 1992 and 1999. He is currently an assistant coach for the U.S. women's hockey team at the World Championship in China.

In nine seasons heading the women's team, Flanagan compiled 230 wins, led the Saints to their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament this year, coached over three dozen ECAC all stars, and had 10 players receive All-America status.

Syracuse will have the full allotment of 18 scholarships and will begin play this fall in the College Hockey America Conference, which also includes Wayne State, Mercyhurst, Niagara, and Robert Morris. However, it has no automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“It kind of felt like a lot of the conferences weren't sure how committed we were,” Gross said. “We were really looking for someone to take us on our word. Now, people are seeing we were very serious about this.”

Where the team will play its inaugural season, which begins Oct. 3, remains unclear. Venues under consideration are Tennity Ice Pavilion on campus and War Memorial Coliseum downtown.

“We're working on it,” Gross said. “We'll probably play at both so that we can serve our campus and the community. Everyone's been receptive on both fronts.”

Flanagan's hiring, which was announced late Monday night, came 10 months to the day after the university's announcement that Syracuse would add women's hockey and cut the school's swimming and diving teams.

With Flanagan's departure, St. Lawrence announced that Chris Wells will replace him. Wells spent nine years in the St. Lawrence men's hockey program, serving as associate head coach the past five seasons.

Wells, also a Canton native and former St. Lawrence player, was an assistant at Colgate and Western Michigan before returning to his alma mater as an assistant in 1999.