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.

A little adversity can be a good thing – but really.

The Sudbury Wolves take to the road this week for a three in three – with two of their three opponents ranked in the top five in the country. Did we mention that their two key returnees from NHL camps are also both injured?

Coach Scott Barney and staff are going to very quickly find out what the 2025-2026 Sudbury Wolves are made of.

The Wolves have earned a season split the past three years with the Windsor Spitfires – but each and every one of the Sudbury victories have come at home. Not only are the Pack looking to snap a five-game losing skid at the WFCU Centre, but also trying to buck a trend that has seen the northern crew capture just one single outing in the past 16 encounters in Windsor.

On March 1st (2018), the visitors spotted the Spits an early 2-0 lead but roared back on goals from Drake Pilon (2), Liam Ross and Nolan Hutcheson, trimming the homeside 4-3 as Marshall Frappier earned the “W” between the pipes.

These teams have combined to score at least a dozen goals in three of their last four outings, including the craziness of the 2023-2024 campaign that saw Windsor – Sudbury matchups averaging 17.5 goals per game.

The recent numbers might not match the shootouts we have witnessed with Windsor but the fact remains that in 58 head to head battles between the Sting and the Wolves to date, there has NEVER been fewer than four total goals scored in a game. Sarnia managed to take the steam out of the sails of the Wolves last year, sweeping the season series after the locals have won seven of eight over four previous campaigns.

The Wolves have never won an overtime affair in Sarnia but have twice walked away with triumphs of the shootout variety. John McFarland got the better of Sting goaltender Matt Hache on October 3rd (2008), while Andrew Loverock went 3/3 in the save department for the Wolves, the team duplicating the feat ten years later on November 10th (2018).

After Cole Candella forced overtime, scoring for Sudbury with 34 seconds to play, Ukka-Pekka Lukkonen stopped three straight penalty shots and Owen Gilhula converted for the Wolves, lifting the team to a 4-3 win.

After opening their four game season set with the Brantford Bulldogs with a 3-1 road win in November last year (goals from Tayjon Street, Nathan Villeneuve and Ondrej Molnar), the Wolves dropped three straight to the team that would top the Eastern Conference in 2024-2025.

That said, the nickel city squad has not fared all that bad while visiting either Brantford or Hamilton in recent years, posting a record of 6-5 in these contests since the start of the 2018-2019 campaign. In fact, during that particular stretch of time, the Wolves on two occasions won five straight games against the Bulldogs, their longest consecutive winning streak in this file.

The Wolves very first road game against what is now the Brantford Bulldogs franchise goes back to November 4th (1981), as what were then the Belleville Bulls stomped their guests from afar 9-3.