Flames fire Ward, hire Darryl Sutter as new head coach

The Calgary Flames fired head coach Geoff Ward and hired former Flames bench boss Darryl Sutter as his replacement, the team announced following Thursday's 7-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Calgary replaced former bench boss Bill Peters with Ward in November 2019 on an interim basis. He led the club to a 24-15-3 record last season before being made permanent head coach in September.

The Flames struggled to carry over that momentum to this season, however and have won three of their last nine games while ranking 23rd overall with 2.71 goals for per game.

Sutter served as Flames head coach from 2002-2006 and led the club to the Stanley Cup Final in 2004. He last coached in the NHL with Los Angeles in 2016-17 and won a pair of Cups with the Kings.

Ward is the second head coach to be fired this season. The Montreal Canadiens dismissed Claude Julien on Feb. 24.

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