Coach Wayne Fleming is finally on his way back to Canada after Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League officially parted ways with him on Friday.
"I met with team officials the other day and we agreed things weren't going the way we wanted," Fleming told TSN. "So we decided it was best we go our separate ways."
The move comes just weeks after a bizarre incident in which Fleming found out he was being let go by the club during the second intermission of a game. 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 then met with Omsk general manager Anatoli Bardin the next day and was told he hadn't been fired.
Fleming, a former assistant coach of the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers, was also an 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.
