Miners extend losing streak to 4 with loss to the Lakers.

Miners extend losing streak to 4 with loss to the Lakers.

CANADIAN PRESS (Dartmouth, NS)

Armed with his fantastic beard, Nick Bonino had two goals as the Dartmouth Lakers skated away with a 6-2 victory over the Sudbury Miners on Thursday night. The goals were Bonino’s 6^th and 7^th of the year, as the Lakers have now won two straight and three of their last four.

"Whether the Lakers are more my style of hockey or whatever, it has been a lot of fun so far. We have a good team here and it's been fun being a part of this organization. I've got a lot of confidence right now” said Bonino.

Trevor Lewis and Zack Parise also chipped in a pair of points for the Lakers, who improved to 13-25-3 with the win in what was a rather physical affair. At one point, Miners defenceman Darnell Nurse was ejected after getting into an altercation with Lakers forward Jussi Jokinen mid-way through the first period.

"I thought we played a mature game and controlled our emotions well," Lewis said. "It's easy to get carried away when things are getting ramped up, but I thought we did a good job of keeping our composure and sticking to the game plan."

Radim Vrbata has both goals for the Miners (10-30-1), who have now lost four in a row. Ben Bishop made 33 saves in the loss.

Sudbury, which now returns home after wrapping up a stretch of 3 games in as many nights, didn't offer much in the way of an attack for the majority of the night.

"They were better than us in a lot of areas tonight," said Miners head coach Derek Sutton. "It was spread out amongst the team. It was a team loss tonight, we just didn't play well." We looked a step behind. We looked a little tired." "It's not good enough," said Bishop. "It's just small details but not paying attention to those gets us another one in the loss column."

Sudbury’s next game is Saturday night at home versus the Portland Owls. Game time is 7pm at the Vale Centre. The game will be a rare, live broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN2, in addition to being streamed live on WatchESPN.

MINERS NUGGETS

- Radim Vrbata’s point streak has now reached a season-high 5 games.

- Ben Bishop will spend the day off in the dentist’s chair. Bishop lost his two front teeth after taking a Andrew Shaw slapshot to the face in the second period last night but finished the contest.

- Saturday night is another Fan Appreciation Night. The first 7,000 fans that enter the Vale Centre will receive a limited edition, Miners stamped piece of nickel as a souvenir.