Miners Fall to Isotopes...

GAME STORY

Gallagher’s hat trick leads Isotopes to victory over the Miners

CANADIAN PRESS (Springfield, IN)

Brendan Gallagher knew he had it in him.  

Gallagher scored a hat trick and Justin Braun had a pair of assists, as the Springfield Isotopes beat the Sudbury Miners 5-3 on Thursday night.

Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist also scored as the Isotopes won for the first time this season.  Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves in the win.

Before the game, the Isotopes juggled lines and put Gallagher on a line with Kyle Turris and Mathieu Perrault and for one night, it paid immediate dividends.   "It's quite different for sure," Turris said. "It wasn’t what I was expecting but it's great. I thought Gally really gave us some energy, too. It was good."

Charlie Coyle, Chris Tierney and Wayne Simmonds scored for the Miners.  Fredrik Andersen stopped 20 shots in the loss. He made some big stops early and didn't have a lot of defensive support.  "There were some good things and obviously some bad," Andersen said. "I can watch a video and learn from what happened."

The Isotopes started quickly and jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period, and were up 4-0 after two.  The Miners pulled a couple of quick one back early in the third to make it 4-2, but hopes for a Sudbury rally in the third were quickly dashed when Malkin scored mid-way through the period to ice the victory.  

"It felt like they had six or seven guys out there," Miners defenceman Andy Greene said. "They were skating on ice. We were skating through mud. Give them some credit because they played really well, and we were not very good."

MINERS NUGGETS

- In a battle of “heavy-weights”, Springfield forward Evgeni Malkin bested Miners defenceman Sami Vatanen in a spirited tilt, late in the second period.

- Coach Derek Sutton announced that goalie Darcy Kuemper would make his home debut on Sunday night when the Las Vegas Aces visit the Vale Centre.