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Fixter blows his top at Soo reporter

As diehard Sudbury Wolves fans no doubt know, there's no love lost between the Nickel City team and the sports staff from the Sault Star newspaper.
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Sudbury Wolves head coach Paul Fixter was part of an angry exchange this week with a Sault Star reporter. Video of the foul-language laden affair is making the rounds of sports media outlets today. Screen capture courtesy of Local 2.
As diehard Sudbury Wolves fans no doubt know, there's no love lost between the Nickel City team and the sports staff from the Sault Star newspaper.

In the last two seasons alone, sport reporter Peter Ruicci — in his singular in-your-face style — has repeatedly lobbed criticism at the team, in particular at owner Mark Burgess. Prior to Connor Burgess' departure from the team, Ruicci seemed to take a real interest in the youth and the decision to give the son of the team's owner a spot on the Wolves roster, often sharing his opinion that Burgess senior's ownership style was a big factor in the team's troubles on the ice.

The headline of Ruicci's most recent opinion piece on the subject pretty much sums up the tenor of his coverage of the team: 'Owner helping make mockery of Wolves' (published Oct. 10).

That tense relationship boiled over in the Sault on Oct. 22, after the Wolves 10th straight loss and was captured on video by a reporter from Sault news outlet Local 2.

The video has since gone viral and has been picked up by both Yahoo's sports blog Buzzing the Net and The Hockey News.

In it, a visibly upset Wolves coach Paul Fixter is being interviewed in the hall after the game. He's terse and monosyllabic during a brief interview with CTV's Lincoln Louttit.

Then, it's Ruicci's turn. And that's where the fireworks happen, about 55 seconds or so into the video.

Ruicci tells Fixter he thought the team played well and asks if he thought the Wolves' work ethic was a factor in their 7-2 loss to the Greyhounds.

“Well, that's your opinion, we worked hard, good for you,” an obviously irritated Fixter says, before raising his voice and demanding, “What's the question!”

In response, Ruicci raises his voice and asks, in the loud but deliberate tone of a parent disciplining an unruly child, “DID YOU WORK HARD?!”

“F--- you!,” Fixter yells back. “Don't f---ing talk to me like that!”

Looking like he would prefer to be anywhere other than doing the post-game interviews, Fixter answers the question after Ruicci rephrases it in a softer tone of voice, saying he thought the team worked hard for 20 minutes of the 60-minute game.

The interview ends abruptly after that.

Wolves GM Blaine Smith said he stepped in shortly after the exchange and ended the interview. He didn't excuse Fixter's outburst — saying the coach's use of foul language could see him fined, suspended or both under OHL rules — but he didn't let Ruicci off the hook, either.

“I think he provoked Paul into saying what he said,” Smith said, mentioning the tense relationship between the team and the Sault Star over the newspaper's coverage of the Wolves. “No question in my mind, the reporter provoked Paul's reaction.”

To watch the video, here's a link to Local 2's footage.

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