Coach Wayne Fleming is on his way back to Canada after Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League parted ways with him in the middle of a game.
In a bizarre move, Fleming found out he was fired by the club during the second intermission of their game against Vityaz Podolsk on Thursday.
Avangard were losing 1-0 after the second period and assistant coach Igor Nikitin took over for the third. Avangard rallied to win the game 2-1 in overtime.
Fleming, a former assistant coach of the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers, was also and associate coach for Team Canada at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
The native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, also served as an assistant coach and general manager of the Canadian National Olympic Program for two years (1990 to 1992) and was a member of the coaching staff that led the Canadian National Men's Team to a silver medal at the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France.
Fleming was the head coach of the University of Manitoba Bisons for nine seasons (1980-81 through 1986-87, 1988-89 and 1989-90). He led the Bisons to two Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships (1983-84 and 1984-85) and won the Father George Kehoe Memorial Award as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union Coach of the Year for the 1984-85 season. His coach record at the University of Manitoba is 140-78-14 in 232 regular season games for a .634 winning percentage.
