Sloppy play leads to Miners loss in Victoria

Sloppy play leads to Miners loss in Victoria

CANADIAN PRESS (Victoria, BC)

Jamie Benn and Evgeni Kuznetsov scored just six seconds apart to break a 3-3 tie late in the third period, as the Victoria Ronin downed the visiting Sudbury Miners, 5-3 on Sunday night.  

Brandon Saad, Mika Zibanejed and Chris Kreider would score the other goals for the Ronin and goaltender Cory Schneider would make 34 saves in the victory.  The win was the Ronin’s first of the season.

Chris Tierney, Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Point would score for the Miners, who actually outshot the Ronin in this contest, 37-33.  Miners goalie Darcy Kuemper, who was making his Miners debut, was spectacular at times, turning away numerous Ronin scoring chances but in the end, it was not enough.

"I felt OK, but I take this loss on my shoulders," Kuemper said. "I thought we played a really good game. We gave up a couple of things, but we played solid. I've got to make better plays and make the saves at the right time to give us a chance to win."

The defence pairing of Aaron Ekblad and Sami Vatanen had a night they would like to forget, as they ended up a combined -5 on the evening.  

“At the end, there was a couple of costly mistakes and turnovers that they capitalized on," Ekblad said. "But we had a great start. We neutralized their heavy game by moving the puck quick in the offensive zone, and we had a ton of shots. If we play like that, I think we're going to be a hard team to play against."

The Miners will look to get back in the win column as the Minnesota Norsemen travel to Sudbury on Tuesday night.  Game time at the Vale Centre is 7:00pm.

MINERS NUGGETS

- The Power Play unit continues to roll early in the season.  They went 2-for-4 on the night and are cruising at a rate of 37.5%, good for 4th place in the league.

- Coach Derek Sutton stated that he will juggle some lines for Tuesday’s game, so one would expect to see defenceman Shea Theodore return to the line-up.