Sluggish Miners can’t stay out of the box, lose to Falcons 5-1.

Sluggish Miners can’t stay out of the box, lose to Falcons 5-1.

CANADIAN PRESS (Fort Erie, ON)

Maybe it was being in Fort Erie. Maybe it was one too many chicken balls at the rookie dinner on Tuesday night. Whatever the cause, the normally disciplined Sudbury Miners could not stay out of the penalty box and the Fort Erie Falcons made them pay on their way to a 5-1 win on Wednesday night.

The Miners “earned” 22 minutes in penalties during the game and their fatigued penalty killing just could not handle a potent Falcons power play as they went 4-for-11 on the night. Nazem Kadri and Blake Wheeler led the way offensively for the Falcons, each with a pair of goals. Former Miner goaltender Philip Grubauer made 22 saves for the win.

Jesper Fast scored the lone goal for the Miners, while Jake Allen made 55 saves in the loss.

“I don't think the start was particularly what we talked about but were lucky. Jake made some big saves for us" said Miners coach Derek Sutton, whose team actually led 1-0 after the first period. "I thought they responded after that and really took it to us."

"They were definitely hemming us in our zone," Miners goalie Jake Allen said. "When they play like that, they are hard to contain.”

“They won all the battles," Miners forward Vincent Trocheck said. "We couldn't get any momentum on our side, but tonight we played lazy…..we were half there and not committed. You can't play like that against a team like this. They're very skilled and fast and make you pay.”

The loss drops the Miners road record to a league worst 2-22-0, something that the Miners’ players are well aware of.

"It's disappointing," Allen said. "I don't think any of us are very happy right now. We can't keep coming on the road and having the same talk after every road game. We've got to dig within, look at ourselves in the mirror here and find a way to get wins on the road. We're clicking at home for most game, it's just about finding that win on the road now."

MINERS NUGGETS

- Defenseman Shea Theodore is now riding a 3-game point scoring streak.

- Defenseman Toby Enstrom tweaked an ankle early in the second period last night. Right now, he listed as day-to-day.

- The Miners have little time to think about this loss. They travel to Dayton to take on the Musicmen on Thursday night in a battle of the CCHL cellar dwellars. Game time is 7:00pm.