As part of my role as team statistician for the Sudbury Wolves, my job description includes the preparation of weekly media notes, featuring various tidbits of information regarding upcoming games.

While these notes have generally been confined to circulating among media types and club officials, it seemed likely that fans of the local OHL team might also have an interest in the odds and ends that I might come across on a weekly basis.

The Sudbury Wolves will wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule with one of the more quiet final weekends in recent years, playing host on Friday to the North Bay Battalion before resuming league play on (Sunday) December 29th, welcoming the Kitchener Rangers to the Nickel City.

In most years, the Wolves find themselves on the road on either the Saturday or Sunday (or both), will players often greeted by their families at those final outings before heading home for the holidays and a short break from the hockey.

Many have been the years where the Sudbury – North Bay rivalry creates matchups that are incredibly compelling. After watching the teams contest no less than six one goal games (including two decided in overtime and one in a shootout) and a two-goal affair in their eight meetings in 2023-2024, it would have been silly to expect the same this winter.

Yet here we sit, three games in, a pair of overtime classics already in the books and a third meeting iced only when Nathan Villeneuve added an insurance marker in a 3-1 Sudbury win with just 12 seconds remaining. Things may certainly change, post trade deadline, but for now, there’s every reason to believe that these two teams will fight it out much the same as they have in 182 previous encounters.

Sure, the Sudbury Wolves have yet to experience a shootout this season, but with only one game on the slate for this weekend, the time seemed right to find some quirks of interest regarding the end of game showdown that continues to endure a great deal of debate.

Though it’s entirely possible that the Wolves will go through the 2024 portion of their 2024-2025 campaign with zero shootouts, this isn’t necessarily all that unusual. While the team witnessed a pair of December 2023 encounters decided in the post-game skills competition (they would take part in four shootouts in total last year), their first shootout in 2022-2023 did not come until January 11th 2023 (vs North Bay – Kyle McDonald scored GWG on Kevyn Brassard in the NB win).

Dating back to 2005-2006, the Sudbury Wolves have never had a season where they did not partake in at least one penalty shot showdown, with 2017-2018 coming closest to achieving that dubious distinction. If not for a 4-3 Sudbury win over the Ottawa 67’s on December 10th 2017 in the nation’s capital, the Wolves would have been shutout in the shootout department that year.

That said, they decided to make the most of their one and only post-OT experience, going no less than seven rounds before Shane Bulitka settled matters in favour of the visitors. Under the heading of somewhat unexpected "stars of the snipe" comes the fact that the Wolves needed a goal by Darian Pilon (more often known for his feistiness than his finesse) in round six to keep their hopes of victory alive that day.

In the end, maybe few shootouts is not a bad thing at all for the Wolves. In 2023-2024, the local juniors dropped three of the four matches that were decided in the one on one battles after going winless (0-3) one year earlier.