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.

The Sudbury Wolves will enjoy the comfort of home cooking for the next two weeks as they embark on a stretch of five straight home games, with the Division and Conference titles still very much up for grabs.

Sure, it’s easy to look at the fact that the Sudbury Wolves have picked up nine of a possible ten points in their five games to date with the Barrie Colts – but some of the underlying numbers speak even more loudly than that.

Over the course of the 305 minutes of hockey the teams have played so far during the 2023-2024 season, the Wolves have trailed for just a grand total of 28:37 – of course, that’s made possible when your team is generally getting off to a very quick start against a specific opponent.

The Pack have enjoyed leads of 4-0 on two occasions (Dec 1st – 9-6 win; Jan 21st – 6-3 win) as well as holding a 3-0 advantage in their opening 5-3 victory over the Colts this year.

And while it’s being noted before, it would be hard to overstate just how much the Wolves top trio of Quentin Musty, Dalibor Dvorsky and David Goyette have enjoyed facing Barrie this season. Musty, in particular, has recorded 17 points (6G-11A) over the course of the five game set – meaning that his PPG average of 3.4 is more than double his scoring output versus all other teams in the league (54 points in 36 games – 1.50 PPG).

Friday night home matchup between the Wolves and the Sting will mark the 56th meeting between the teams, with the locals posting an overall record of 27-24-3-1 to date. With their 7-3 road victory in southwestern Ontario on January 12th, the Sudbury lads extended their current win streak to a pair of games versus this Western Conference opponent.

In fact, the four goal margin of victory was the largest ever registered by the Wolves over the Sting on the road and also the greatest single game goal output for the team in Sarnia. A win on Friday would also mark the seventh time that Sudbury has captured the season series, with Sarnia already boasting that number at the moment.

Beginning with their matchup Sunday afternoon in Sudbury, the Wolves will grow increasingly knowledgeable of the Oshawa Generals, with three of the final ten regular season games for Sudbury pitting them against the East Division foe.

Their only meeting to date this year resulted in a 7-5 road win for Sudbury on November 26th, with the top unit again front and centre. First star Quentin Musty (2G+1A), second star David Goyette (1G+3A) and Dalibor Dvorsky (1G+1A) combined to register nine points as the Wolves parlayed a 5-2 lead midway through the third to enjoy a bit of a cushion as Oshawa made a run late.