Miners clawed by the Icecats, as offensive woes continue.

CANADIAN PRESS (Siberia, RU)

Patrick Eaves scored late in the first period and Connor McDavid chipped in with an assist and that would be all the offense needed, as the Siberia Icecats defeated the struggling Sudbury Miners, 4-0 on Friday night.

Matt Murray made 20 saves in net for the Icecats and notched his first shutout of the season.

The game was the Miners third in as many nights, and it showed. They failed to generate much in the way of scoring chances and if it wasn’t for goalie Ben Bishop, the score could have been much worse. Bishop would make 31 saves in the loss.

"You can't play from behind in this league whether it be game to game or in the standings…….you can't be climbing all year," Bishop said. "We knew when we looked at our schedule, that this stretch of the year it was a lot of road games for us. Quick starts especially on the road, are a big factor in success and that has been something we have not been able to do all year. Our record shows it."

Sudbury’s top line of Vincent Trocheck, Radim Vrbata and Tobias Reider had a night they would rather forget. They struggled all night, both offensively and defensively. The result of their efforts would be that each of them ended the game with a minus-3 on the scoresheet.

"It's wait, wait, wait and they are hard to get the puck away from because they are so good," Trocheck said. "It starts with McDavid and all those guys possess it well. They just needed one shot on a couple of them. That's how dangerous they are."

With the loss, the Miners record drops to 6 wins, 16 losses on the season, and now sit second last in the CCHL, ahead of only the Long Island Express.

MINERS NUGGETS

- Rookies Timo Meier, Travis Konecny, and Drake Caggiula made their CCHL debuts last night. All three played significant minutes but were unable to spark the Miners anemic offense.

- The Miners penalty killing continues to be their lone bright spot. They currently sit at 1st overall in the CCHL with a 93% kill rate.

- The Miners have Saturday night off before they are back in action on Monday night when they continue their road trip versus the Minnesota Norsemen.