Facts + Figures: weekly by the numbers look at the OHL

Road warriors, a weird signing and a struggling pack of Wolves all made the cut in our weekly by the numbers look at the Ontario Hockey League.

54

The number of games it took for the Hamilton Bulldogs to guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs. The team clinched Sunday with a win over the CHL’s No. 1 ranked Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds coupled with a Peterborough Petes loss. The Bulldogs are the first team in the Eastern Conference to punch their ticket and the fourth in the OHL, following the Soo, Kitchener Rangers and Sarnia Sting.

30

The number of wins Sting netminder Justin Fazio has registered this season — a new franchise record. The 20-year-old Sarnia native turned aside 37 shots in an overtime win against the Niagara IceDogs Saturday to surpass the previous mark set by Dan Spence in the 2008-09 campaign. His 0.920 save percentage was also tops among OHL goalies going into the weekend.

20

The age of the Sting’s latest commitment — Mitch Eliot. A 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenceman from Grosse Point, Mich., Eliot signed with Sarnia Friday (one day before the free agency deadline) after spending the past season and a half with the NCAA Div. 1 Michigan State Spartans. GM Nick Sinclair said the team “always left the door open to Mitch and we are very happy that he and his family have chosen to join us to further Mitch’s development on and off the ice.” Eliot, the son of former NHLer Darren Eliot, was an 11th round pick of the Sting in the 2014 OHL draft and was on the team’s protected list.

2,009

The number of kilometres travelled by the Greyhounds on a threegame road trip last weekend. The team spent roughly 21 hours on the bus to get to St. Catharines, Erie and Hamilton, where it was downed by the Bulldogs 5-2. The Hounds won their other two matchups against the Otters and Niagara IceDogs by a combined score of 10-5.

20,393

The number of kilometres travelled by the Greyhounds over the course of the regular season. By the time the campaign wraps up March 18, the Soo will have also spent roughly 210 hours — or nearly nine days — just driving to and from road games. The Bulldogs, by comparison, log around 12,388 kilometres and 128 highway hours.

40,075

The circumference of the Earth, in kilometres. That means a Greyhounds player will circle the planet a little more than twice during a four-year OHL career without ever leaving the Great Lakes region.

7

The number of road games lost by the Soo so far this season — the fewest in the OHL. The Sting are nipping their heels with eight road losses, while the Rangers have nine and the London Knights and Bulldogs each have 11.

12-2

Kitchener’s record since signing goalie Mario Culina. The 20-yearold from Sault Ste. Marie is a perfect 10-0 with a goals-against average of 1.70, a save percentage of 0.949 and two shutouts since being joining the Rangers just before the January trade deadline. Culina, who backed up Michael DiPietro during the Windsor Spitfires’ Memorial Cup run last season, started the season with the U Sports Ryerson Rams before signing with the Sudbury Wolves in late November.

2000-01

The last season in which the Wolves had home ice advantage in the playoffs (they finished first in their division and second in their conference). Since then, they have never finished higher than fifth in the East and were dead last four times. They’re on pace for another 10th place finish this campaign with 14 games still to play.