Hockey coach fired during the game

09 January, 2009, 16:24

The coach of Avangard Omsk hockey team didn’t return to the bench for third period of his team’s home game against Vityaz. Canadian Wayne Fleming couldn’t do so as he’d been fired during the break.

After the second period Avangard were losing 1-0 to lowly Vityaz and the club’s bosses had just had enough of the team’s poor performance in the current KHL season.

Second coach Igor Nikitin took charge of Avangard in the third period and under his guidance the team managed to level the score and take the game to overtime, where a shot from Kuryanov gave victory to the hosts.

Avangard have been among the leading powers in Russian hockey in recent years, winning the Russian Championship in 2004 and the European Champions Cup in 2005.

The team has a strong squad. Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr now plays in Omsk, but even he hasn’t been able to stop the team from slipping to 10th position in the KHL table.

Wayne Fleming is the second Avangard coach to part company with the club this season. Sergey Gersonsky retired from his job back in the autumn after the team’s poor start in the league.

Fleming is famous for his work with the Canadian national hockey team and clubs in the NHL.