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 have but one game on the schedule this week and it comes at home against the solitary opponent versus whom the locals have picked up a point this year in the form of the North Bay Battalion.

The Wolves opened the 2025-2026 season with a 4-3 overtime loss to the northern rivals but have followed suit with four straight road setbacks, navigating a tough early season schedule. In fact, the next three games after this encounter find the Pack back on the road, heading south on Thanksgiving weekend for matchups against the Brantford Bulldogs, Erie Otters and Niagara Ice Dogs.

For as much as older local fans can pretty much all recall their favourite memories of Sudbury Wolves - North Bay Centennials affairs, the head to head legacy between these two franchises only dates back to the fall of 1998, the inaugural OHL campaign for the then Brampton Battalion.

The first meeting of these teams in Sudbury came on November 20th (1988) when the Wolves blew open a 2-2 contest with four unanswered goals, including a pair in the third period from Norm Milley. Rounding out the scoring that evening for the homeside were Derek MacKenzie, Mike Fisher, Troy Turyk and Taylor Pyatt.

That said, the Battalion have proven to be a worthy foe on the road when making the trek to the nickel city. The recent OT loss leaves Sudbury sporting a home record of 41-40-3-7-3 against the Troops, the latter actually holding the edge in goals scored, 297-276.

Given all of those goals, it may come as a surprise to some to note that the Wolves and Battalion have contested no less than 21 outings that have finished with one team or the other earning a shutout, with the Brampton / North Bay reps registering 14 of those.

In leading his team to a series win last year, head coach Scott Barney joined only Mike Foligno (2009-2010) and Cory Stillman (2018-2019 & 2019-2020) as bench bosses who have been able to celebrate that same accomplishment in Sudbury.

Ironically, both the Wolves longest home winning streak and longest home losing skid versus the Battalion have come in recent years. Sudbury captured four straight battles between January 16/19 and January 10/20 against North Bay, the Woofers riding five point nights from both Quinton Byfield (2G/3A) and Matej Pekar (5A) to an 8-2 thumping of the Battalion in the last of that four game set.

Conversely, the Battalion emerged victorious in each and every one of the four games played in Sudbury between February 27/22 and November 30/22, the visitors led by two-goal efforts from both Josh Bloom and Dalyn Wakely in posting a 7-4 victory over the Wolves in that last match.