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.
Thankfully, not only do only a small handful of players remain on the team that will start a three games in four nights stint on Thursday, but of that group, Quentin Musty, Nathan Villeneuve, Kieron Walton, Alex Pharand and Kocha Delic combined to amass 20 points as Sudbury downed Windsor 9-3 earlier this year up north.
Despite only one victory to show for their last 15 visits to the border city, the Wolves will look to continue a pretty solid run that has accounted for five wins in their past seven games. Their last triumph in Windsor came on March 1st (2018) when the visitors overcame a 2-0 deficit, netted four straight goals (Drake Pilon; Liam Ross; Drake Pilon; Nolan Hutcheson) and held on for a 4-3 win.
Sarnia and Sudbury have captured a sweep of the two-game season series on seven occasions apiece, though a 5-1 Sting win over the Wolves back on October 18th finds the Pack playing for the season tie this year. A 10-3 Sudbury victory last March at home marked the first time that double digits had ever been reached in this 30-year battle, though mid-level scoring games typically have been the norm.
In fact, Sarnia has never shutout the Wolves in 57 games to date while Sudbury has turned the trick twice, both 4-0 victories, in 2004 and 2009 with goaltenders Patrick Ehelechner and Alain Valiquette earning the whitewash wins.
London has beaten Sudbury 11 straight times at home, though they required overtime to do so last season. Goals by Quentin Musty, Nolan Collins and Evan Konyen had Sudbury clinging to a 3-2 lead late when Ruslan Gazizov tied the contest with 1:35 to play before netting the game-winning goal with just 11 ticks remaining on the clock in OT.
The extra point for the overtime loss allowed Sudbury to claim the season series in 2023-2024 for the first time since they swept the Knights in two games back in 2010-2011. That particular season series would see an unlikely tandem emerge as goal scoring heroes in the Wolves’ wins as a hat-trick from Eric O’Dell (not all that unusual) in game two came on the heels of a two-goal performance from Ben Chiarot in the earlier game that year.