Miners extend win streak to two; defeat Norsemen Bishop

Bishop stopped 26 of 28 Minnesota shots

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON)

Radim Vrbata scored early in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and Ben Bishop made 26 saves, to give the Sudbury Miners a 3-2 win over the visiting Minnesota Norsemen on Monday night. The win now extends the Miners current win streak to two games.

Defenseman Adam Larsson would also chip in a goal and an assist in the win.

This game was fairly even over the first two periods. The Miners would open the scoring early in the first on a goal by Marcus Foligno, Larsson and Benoit Pouliot. The Norsemen would answer late in the first on a goal by Andres Lee, his sixth of the season, and the teams would go to the room tied 1-1.

In the middle stanza, the two teams would exchange goals by Larsson and Casey Cizikas to round out all the scoring and the Miners would outshoot the Norsemen 12-9 in the period but the two teams would go into the third tied 2-2.

The Norsemen dominated the third. The peppered the Miners goal, outshooting them 13-2 but Bishop continued to turn them away until Vrbata’s winner late in the third. Tobias Rieder and Vincent Trocheck drew the assists on Vrbata’s winning marker.

After the game, one area that continues to be of concern for Miners coach Derek Sutton, is his struggling power play. "We haven't used a lot of man-hours to practice our power play yet, but we've been over some things we want to see on the power play," Sutton said. “Hopefully, with the effort that we have been putting in lately, we will see some results on the scoreboard”.

MINERS NUGGETS

- Unlike the power play, the Miners penalty killing continues to be a strength. The held the Norsemen scoreless in two chances and now sit 1st overall in the CCHL.

- The Miners clearly like home cooking. They are now 5-2 at home, as opposed to their 1-5 record on the road.

- Coach Derek Sutton indicated that with the win last night, Ben Bishop will keep the net for the Miners next game on the road versus the Las Vegas Aces.