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.

Four games in a six day stretch is about as intense as it gets at any point of the OHL season for the Sudbury Wolves – and that’s exactly the schedule that stands before them as they continue to show the way in the Eastern Conference this week.

As the northern rivals prepare to meet for the fifth time this year – the Greyhounds took the opening two games (7-4 and 3-2 in OT); Wolves won last two (5-1 and 6-5) – a quick scan of the top scorers in this matchup is interesting.

Sure, David Goyette is tied for the Sudbury team lead with two goals and three assists – but it’s Nick DeAngelis and Landon McCallum right next to him, both with five assists. Dalibor Dvorsky is well within range with 3G-1A, but the Wolves would love to get Quentin Musty (1G-0A) untracked against the Western powerhouse.

The Soo scoring has also been well distributed, with Marco Mignosa (3G-2A) and Jack Beck (1G-4A) leading the way, followed by Owen Allard (3G-1A), Kirill Kudryavtsev (0G-4A), Andrew Gibson (2G-2A) and Caeden Carlisle (0G-4A) all in on the mix.

As the cross-conference rivals prepare to battle for the 40th time since they first faced off on October 5th 2002 (a 6-2 Saginaw win), Sudbury is looking to hit the win column for just the 13th time – and first time in their past five encounters.

Although these teams have never combined to exceed the ten goal plateau when playing in Saginaw, Sudbury has been home to at least a couple of shootouts, the Spirit edging the Wolves 9-8 on January 20th 2012 (Josh Leivo and Nathan Pancel scored twice each for Sudbury, with the likes of Michael Sgarbossa and Andrey Kuchin also hitting the mark) and beating the homeside again on February 21st 2020, 10-6.

Damien Giroux netted his 36th and 37th goals of the season in that encounter while Nolan Hutcheson, who currently sits third in scoring with the Queen’s Golden Gaels this year (14G-15A in 29 GP) tallied twice for Sudbury.

Back on January 6th in Sudbury, the Wolves trailed the Kitchener Rangers 5-2 as the contest hit the midway point. But the homeside would go on a roll (perhaps something of an understatement), scoring five unanswered including four in the third to stop the visitors 7-5.

Kitchener bounced back quickly, winning their next four games. That might be when folks went back to the game film of the Wolves-Rangers encounter. Since that last positive stretch, the Rangers are now 2-8, eking out close wins over Guelph twice (3-2 in overtime; 4-3 last night). Once neck and neck with the London Knights, Kitchener now sits 13 points back in second place in the Midwest Division.

Backing out the Peterborough Petes (1-8-1-0) out of the picture for a moment, no two OHL teams have worst records in their past ten games than Kitchener (see above) and the Guelph Storm (slightly better at 2-6-2-0).

At the end of October, Sudbury stopped Guelph 5-2 in the Nickel City as Kieron Walton scored twice, signalling early what has been a breakthrough season for the power forward who has jumped from his rookie total of 13 points in 46 games (8G-5A) to an impressive stat line of 47GP – 15G – 19A – with 18 games still on the docket for coach Ken MacKenzie and company.