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.

From the time that the Brampton Battalion entered the OHL in 1998-1999 through to the franchise move to North Bay and on to the end of the 2017-2018 campaign, Sudbury had never beaten their divisional rivals more than three straight times at home. That all changed when the Wolves strung together a quartet of home victories between January 16th (2019) and January 10th (2020).

Just a few years later, it was time to take out the eraser all over again. Dating back to November 1st (2023), on a night when Quentin Musty scored the first of his handful of game-winning goals in overtime last year, the Wolves have captured six straight games against the Battalion at the Sudbury Arena – including three wins already this year.

When you meet as often as the Sudbury Wolves and North Bay Battalion do – eight times a season, to be precise – there are bound to be some interesting numbers that jump out when one looks for trends.

The Wolves are coming off a 3-2 loss in North Bay last Sunday in which they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead but saw the Battalion gradually claw their way back. That said, at the end of the first period last week, the teams had played 18 periods of hockey (included two abbreviated overtime periods) – and Sudbury had scored at least one goal in 16 of those frames.

The 2024-2025 series between these rivals has seen a couple of Sudbury players rise to the occasion more often than not. Seattle Kraken prospect Nathan Villeneuve has scored six goals in six games to date, including a hat trick on December 20th at home, accounting for 30% of his 20 goal production to date.

Sudbury netminder Nate Krawchuk has been selected as one of the three stars in half of these games, named as the third star in season opening 4-3 (OT) and 3-1 wins and following that up with a #1 start performance on January 3rd as the Wolves broke open a 1-1 game with three goals in the third, toppling North Bay 4-1.

The Sudbury Wolves have never lost to the Brantford Bulldogs at home – which isn’t saying much since technically, they have only played them twice since the franchise made the move from Hamilton prior to the start of the 2023-2024 OHL season.

Even still, the Wolves do enjoy a record of 41-27-4-2-3 versus the franchise that began operations as the Belleville Bulls, moving to Hamilton in 2015. While there have been six shutouts registered in this series to date, only one has come courtesy of a visiting team.

On March 9th (2019), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned in another stellar performance, making 41 saves as the Wolves whitewashed the Bulldogs 4-0 in Hamilton, with defenseman Cole Candella picking up an assist on three of the four Sudbury goals.

On the other side of the table, the teams have gone to a shootout on three occasions – with the home team going 0/3 in the skills session. The last shootout between these two came on March 7th (2014) at Sudbury Arena when Stephen Harper was the only one of six shooters who would covert, lifting Belleville past Sudbury 2-1.