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.
While there are countless examples of this tete a tete being separated by a day of rest in between, the notion of facing these teams off on successive nights is not a new one. This coming weekend marks the 11th time the teams will play a two in two set, with the vast majority of those taking place between 1976 and 1983.
In fact, eight such matchups took place in that stretch of time, including three back to back encounters during the 1981-1982 campaign with the Greyhounds picking up four of the six wins that year. Those early series included some very wonky results, beginning in 1976-1977 when the Wolves rebounded from a 6-1 loss on October 5th and trounced the Hounds 14-2 the next night at Sudbury Arena.
A year later, the Wolves were bounced 15-3 in Sault Ste Marie (still stands as the record for loss spread on the road in this series for Sudbury) but were mildly more competitive returning home 24 hours later to a 73 setback. The only two-game sweep that the Sudbury lads have ever recorded in these affairs came in 1978-1979 as the team slipped past the Soo 7-6 on the road and doubled the visitors 8-4 at home the very next night.
While recent examples of back to back games on back to back nights between these teams has been more rare, the Wolves have hoping to break what is a relatively limited, though negative, trend. In the Covid-affected 2021-2022 season, Sudbury and the Sault would meet a grand total of 11 times, including three times in regular season play in April.
On Friday, April 8th, Cole MacKay netted a hat trick as the Greyhounds toppled the Wolves 8-4, with Ryan Smith, Liam Ross, Kocha Delic and David Goyette replying in a losing cause for Sudbury. Heading to the Lock City on Saturday night (April 9th), the Pack opened the scoring courtesy of Kocha Delic, only to see the Hounds answer with five straight, including two from former Wolves defenseman Jack Thompson.
One year ago, Sudbury captured two games of the six encounters the teams contested, with both victories coming at home. Alex Pharand scored twice and Kieron Walton added another as coach Scott Barney and staff helped guide their squad to a 3-1 victory on October 16th (2024). Early in the new year (January 8th), Kocha Delic buried a hat trick leading the Wolves to a 7-1 win over Sault Ste Marie.
