Sudbury drops 4th in a row...

Miners scoring woes continue; lose 4-1 to Puffin.

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON)

Artem Anisimov scored the game-winner at 19:28 of the second period, as the Rejkjavik Ruffin defeated the Sudbury Miners, 4-1 on Monday night.

David Krejci, Jeff Skinner, and Jujhar Khaira would score the other goals for the Puffin and goaltender Braden Holtby would make 19 saves in the victory.  The Puffin has now won two straight after ending a three-game losing streak.

For the Miners, the loss was their fourth in a row and dropped their record to 15-40-3, good for 20th spot overall in the CCHL.

"We are in the collecting points business," Miners coach Derek Sutton said as the Miners concluded a two-game road trip with the visit to Iceland. "Today we collected zero."

Aaron Ekblad scored the lone goal for the Miners just 34 seconds into the game, but they were badly outshot in this contest, 41-20.  Miners goalie Ben Bishop was spectacular at times, turning away numerous Puffin scoring chances and keeping the Miners in the game but in the end, it was not enough.

“We didn’t do a lot of positive things tonight," said Bishop. "We seemed to shut it down after getting that early goal close and when you are playing against one of the stronger teams over the past few years, you have to focus for the full game."

"I think the first couple of periods, they had way too many shots, way more shots than we want to give up," Miners forward Vincent Trocheck said. "He (Bishop) stood on his head for a little bit and kept us in the game.”

"(The Puffin) are former champs, and we're not there yet, but I think this was a big test for us," Bishop said. "You know you have to show up when you're playing Reykjavik, otherwise you're going to get embarrassed. That’s what happened tonight."


MINERS NUGGETS

- The Miners penalty killing unit was not good last night.  They allowed 2 power play goals to the Puffin in 8 chances.

- Radim Vrbata sits as the scoring leader for the Miners.  He has 20 goals and 21 assists for 41 points on the year.

- The next game for the Miners is Wednesday night when they play on the road versus the Long Island Express.  Game time at the Sarah Hughes Arena is 7:00pm.