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.

Even with New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day stuck right in the middle of the upcoming week, the Sudbury Wolves will have little time to kick back and welcome the transition to 2026 – not with four games on the schedule in a span of six days.

The Sudbury Wolves will complete their 2025-2026 two game set against the Kitchener Rangers on Tuesday as the leaders of the Midwest Division (22-10-3-0) make their trek north this week. The Rangers blanked the Wolves 3-0 at home on Halloween night, extending their current string of victories against The Pack to four games.

That run pales by comparison to the 19 consecutive setbacks the Wolves suffered at the hands of the Rangers between January of 1982 and February of 1985. The 3-0 win in October marked the seventh shutout that Kitchener had recorded against Sudbury – the exact same amount as nickel city squads have registered over the years versus their K-W opponents.

The three goal total also equalled the lowest combined total for both teams in games played in Kitchener, with the Rangers having picked up four home ice 2-1 victories over the years, as well as one previous 3-0 triumph. In Sudbury, the low-water mark for this series sits at just two goals, with each team having notched a 2-0 victory, the Wolves celebrating their “W” on January 4th (2014) as goaltender Franky Palazzese turned aside 30 shots against his former teammates.

With the likes of Kashawn Aitcheson, Cole Beaudoin and Emil Hemming all at the World Juniors in Minnesota, the Wolves will face the Barrie Colts for the penultimate time this season with a better than average chance to grab the series lead in 2025-2026. And this after dropping three of their first four head to head matchups this year.

The Wolves should have some confidence, not only by virtue of reeling off four straight wins heading into the Christmas break, but also having defeeated Barrie in each of their last two meetings: 6-3 on November 28th in Sudbury and 4-1 on December 18th in Barrie.

Even a split of their final two games with the Colts would make for a decent eight game series for the locals, though in the 29 years these teams have gone toe to toe, only four years have seen the teams earn a dead even split in terms of points secured.

Where the Wolves and Colts are pretty much done with their season series, the eight game set between Sudbury and North Bay is only two games deep – the last of which came on October 3rd. The Wolves have but one point to show for their two outings with their closest rival, beaten 4-3 in overtime by the Battalion in their home opener this year.

This weekend sees the teams contesting a home and home, beginning with the encounter in Sudbury on Friday and followed by a Sunday rematch in North Bay. Interestingly enough, the Wolves longest home winning and losing streaks against the Battalion have both come in the past five years, with four straight victories at Sudbury Arena between January of 2019 and January of 2020, of course followed by five straight setbacks at the old barn from February of 2022 to November of 2022.

Though North Bay (and formerly Brampton) does hold a decent advantage in the historical matchups (Sudbury is 70-97-4-14-4 all time vs the Battalion), they have really excelled when it comes to low scoring affairs that end in a shutout. While the Wolves have blanked their divisional rivals seven times in total, the Battalion have twice as many whitewashes (14) to their credit against the Woofers.