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 would take absolute perfection from his team, but by this time next week, Sudbury Wolves head coach Scott Barney could lay claim to the next rung of the ladder in terms of all-time victories behind the bench of the local juniors.

Beginning the season with 59 victories to his credit, Barney has seen that number vault up to 69 thanks to the quick start the Wolves have enjoyed. With four wins in their quartet of games between now and next Tuesday, the former Humboldt Broncos bench boss would surpass the legendary Jerry Toppazzini (72 wins), taking over eighth place on the list.

From there, it’s a jump of 20 wins or so to move into the top five ranks, with Andy Laing at 93 and Cory Stillman and Trent Cull both at 94. Mike Foligno continues to lead the way at 185, a number that is safe for at least a few years yet.

A home and home set with the Barrie Colts this week with the Soo Greyhounds squeezed in between has the makings of a divisional rival seeking retribution. Victories by scores of 6-0 (in Barrie) and 5-2 (in Sudbury) were a big part of a very good start to the 2026-2027 campaign, one which saw the Wolves equal set a new franchise-best mark with five straight wins to kickoff the season.

For as much as their record of 3-10-3-0 is a clear indication of a Colts team in search of gradual improvement, there is no denying an increased recent competitiveness in Barrie as the team as a win and two overtime losses to show for their past three outings. As much as any other head to head series, the Sudbury v Barrie legacy is one of continually shifting momentum swings.

In fact, one has to go all the way back to January of 2024 to find a sequence of games where a victory by one team was slipped in between two wins by their opponents. Winning streaks of four and five games have dotted their series in recent years – though that wasn’t the case early on.

In fact, though the teams met for the very first time on October 8th (1995), a 2-1 Sudbury win on the road, it wasn’t until the 2003-2004 campaign that the Wolves enjoyed a winning record against the Colts, posting a mark of 3-2-3 (OT ties were still in order that year) in their traditional eight game set.

For as much as the Soo Greyhounds are not even in the same conference as the Wolves, let alone the same division, no historical game by game comparison can match the lore of the Highway 17 West showdown. The teams enter the current campaign having met on 370 previous occasions dating back to November 14th (1972) – though these tete a tetes pre-date the entry of both teams into what was then the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A Series.

With six regularly scheduled clashes between these teams annually, it is tough for the newer entries who populate the current Central Division with the Wolves to make up much ground on the all-time ticker count. That said, despite hosting three games (or more) in Sudbury in every non-pandemic year since 1992-1993, the Wolves enter this year looking to emerge triumphant on home ice at least twice for the first time since 2015-2016.

In that year, the Wolves actually turned the trick twice in a span of ten days, defeating the Hounds 6-4 and 4-2. Key Sudbury contributors that season included the likes of Mikkel Aagaard (two goals in game one), defenseman Kyle Capobianco (three points in two games) and netminder Troy Timpano (back to back wins in net with a save percentage of .912).