Ducks fire Carlyle

RANDY Carlyle was fired on Sunday as coach of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks with club general manager Bob Murray to serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season. A seven-game losing streak and the worst record in the Western Conference with only 21 wins and 51 points from 56 games proved too much for Carlyle to keep his job. “Difficult decisions need to be made when times are tough and our play has clearly been unacceptable,” Murray said. The 62year-old Canadian, who played 17 NHL seasons from 1976 to 1993, coached the Ducks to the Stanley Cup in 2007 in the second season of his first stint as Anaheim coach, which ended with his firing early in the 2011-12 campaign.