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.

It’s certainly not news to anyone involved with the Sudbury Wolves that come post-season time, there is typically a heightened awareness to playing sound defensive hockey. Coach Scott Barney and company will undoubtedly look to a tough upcoming two game weekend homestand as offering the chance to turn things around on this front.

After ranking as one of the better defensive teams in the league early in the 2024-2025 campaign, the Wolves have hit a very tough stretch, surrendering six goals or more in four of their last five games and six of their past eight.

Given all of the above, it’s certainly not ideal that Sudbury faces two of the teams who find themselves in the top four in terms of goals for in the entire league, starting with the Saginaw Spirit, a squad that is showing that way in this particular statistical column with 271 goals to date.

The Spirit potted eight against the Wolves when the teams met on February 15th in Michigan, with Michael Misa leading the way with a hat trick. The Wolves did manage to snap a two-game home losing skid against Saginaw last February, doubling the visitors 6-3 as Kieron Walton enjoyed a three-goal performance.

Sudbury sits just above the .500 mark in their home meetings, all-time, with the Spirit, boasting a record at Sudbury Arena of 9-8-0-1. Interestingly enough, of the five times that these teams have eve required a shootout to solve matters, the Wolves have prevailed on four occasions.

Looking very much like a team that is both healthy and has finally figured it out, the Brampton Steelheads roll into Sudbury having picked up at least one point in nine of their last ten games, including a 2-1 overtime triumph against the North Bay Battalion Thursday evening, kicking off their three game northern swing.

The Wolves can easily vouch for the improved play of the Steelheads, post-Christmas, outscored 15-4 in their past two encounters after knocking off Brampton in overtime in a home and home set in December.