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PENGUINS FIRE HEAD COACH MICHEL THERRIEN

The Pittsburgh Penguins have made a big shakeup behind the bench, firing head coach Michel Therrien on Sunday.

The move comes less than a year after Therrien guided the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup final since 1992.

Dan Bylsma, head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League, will take over as interim head coach.

The Penguins also reassigned assistant coach Andre Savard within the organization, while assistant coach Mike Yeo and goaltending coach Gilles Meloche will remain on staff.

Tom Fitzgerald, the team's director of player development, will join the staff as an assistant coach.

''We believe we need a change in direction and, with 25 games remaining in the regular season, our goal remains to finish strong and qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs,'' Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero said in a statement. ''Dan Bylsma is one of the bright young coaches in the game and has done an exceptional job as the head coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season.''

Bylsma played nine NHL seasons as a right winger with Los Angeles and Anaheim from 1995-2004. He played 429 NHL regular season games and also played in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final with Anaheim.

This season under Bylsma, the Baby Penguins are 35-16-1-2.

The 45-year-old Therrien was hired by the club in December of 2005 and led Pittsburgh to a 105-point season and a playoff berth the following season - its first since 2001. Therrien led the Penguins to 47-point improvement over the previous campaign, the fourth-biggest turnaround from one season to the next in NHL history.

Despite significant injuries to Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury in 2007-08, Therrien guided the Penguins to a 47-27-8 record for 102 points – their second straight 100-point season and their first division title since 1997-98.

Therrien arrived in Pittsburgh following a two-and-half year stint as head coach of the club's AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He led the Baby Penguins to the AHL finals in 2003-04, and his 2005-06 team was off to a remarkable 21-1-2-1 start, including a league-record 15 straight wins, when he was summoned to Pittsburgh as a mid-season replacement for coach Eddie Olczyk.

The native of Montreal broke into coaching in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Laval and Granby, posting a .720 winning percentage in four seasons. His teams reached the league finals three times, and he captured the Memorial Cup with Granby in 1996.

He was head coach of Montreal's AHL affiliates in Fredericton and Quebec from 1997-2000 and was head coach of the Canadiens from 2000-03. He led the Canadiens to the playoffs in 2001-02.