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.

After navigating their way through as challenging a four game stretch as they have seen all years (not to mention picking up five points of eight in the process), the Sudbury Wolves find themselves in the midst of a more reasonable upcoming schedule, with just a home encounter versus the Peterborough Petes and a Sunday afternoon meeting with the Mississauga Steelheads on the docket this upcoming weekend.

Let’s start with the fact that while these teams are at opposite ends of the Eastern Conference standings this year – Sudbury tied for first at 32-16-3-3 = 70 pts; Peterborough in ninth at 17-31-5-1 = 40 pts – it is the Petes who hold a 2-1 advantage in the head to head matchups this year.

The season series started well enough for the Wolves, registering a 4-0 shutout in the Lift Lock City on October 5th in their road opener. This marked the first time that Sudbury has ever recorded a shutout in their road opener – and also marked a second consecutive 4-0 regular season game in Peterborough between these teams, the Petes blanking the Wolves by that same score back on February 20th (2023).

At season’s end, the teams will have met up 222 times in total – although twice more in Sudbury than in Peterborough (112 vs 110). The discrepancy can be traced back to both distant and recent past. Beginning with the Wolves entry into the OHL in 1972-1973, these two would battle seven times during the regular season, with the home ice advantage flip-flopping, year over year.

But that schedule only lasted three years, with Sudbury having four home games in years one and three, giving the team a +1 in that column by the time 1975-1976 rolled around. From that time until the current season, the regular season schedule has called for an equal annual split between the Wolves and the Petes.

But as any real Sudbury fan remembers like it was yesterday, (Thursday) March 12th (2020) not only marked a rare game postponement in the league – but also the start of what was to become the global pandemic that was Covid-19. Many folks actually think of that Thursday evening as the real “start date”, from a local perspective, since sports shuttered down in a real hurry after that.

With 177 goals against in 54 games this year (3.28 GAA), the Mississauga Steelheads have allowed the second fewest goals in the Eastern Conference (behind the Oshawa Generals at 169). But you might as well throw that stat out the window when they face the Sudbury Wolves, an opponent who has scored 24 times in five games (4.8 goals per game) and have scored four or more in four of their five outings.

This season stands in stark contrast to a strong history of tight-checking affairs with the former St Michael’s Majors, including the 2012-2013 campaign where the Wolves took five of six from the newly christened Steelheads – but never scored more than five times in a game, averaging 3.33 vs Mississauga that year.

The Wolves are coming off a strange 8-7 overtime triumph the last time these two met in Mississauga, with Sudbury up 4-0 just 11:39 into the game, the home side pushing back to deadlock the contest at 6-6 in the opening two minutes of the third and then forcing OT when Angus MacDonell scored in the final minute of play.

Thankfully, Sudbury turned to their overtime ace in the hole, Quentin Musty, who netted his third game-winning goal of the year in period number four with the teams playing three on three hockey.