BELLEVILLE, ON - You otter believe it. The Belleville Bulls were added to the list of teams defeated by the Erie Otters this season on Monday afternoon as Sondre Olden's pair of goals in combination with a 41 save outing by Ramis Sadikov led Erie to a 4-1 win at the Yardmen.

The hard working Otters played a perfect road game, gaining an early lead and never looking back despite overwhelming pressure by the Bulls late in the game.

With Erie buzzing midway through the first period, Malcolm Subban was forced to come up with a big right pad save but couldn't stop Toronto Maple Leafs third round pick Sondre Olden from swatting a rebound over his pad to give the Otters a 1-0 lead at 8:09.

Coming into Monday's action off a pair of losses in their East Division road swing, the Otters were hungry for points having won just 8 games headed into Monday. 

Connor Brown, a name gaining high repute in the OHL this season made the score 2-0 Erie 46 seconds later with his 20th goal of the season. The younger brother of long time OHL'er Jeff Brown came in on a breakaway after being sprung on a pass by Dane Fox. Brown would beat Subban through the five-hole as the capacity crowd at the Yardmen was brought to a hush.

An Eastern Ontario boy would score his first goal of the season as Odessa's Kris Grant gave the Otters their third goal in 1:16 when Connor Brown dipsy doodled out of the corner, losing control of the puck as Grant pinched in off the blueline and beat Subban on the blocker side.

The Bulls were outshot 20-13 by Erie as a slow start saw them behind 3-0 after the first period.

In the second the Bulls came out and tried to throw more rubber the way of Ramis Sadikov in the Erie net. The unorthodox Russian goaltender found ways to get his body in front of pucks and recover when he gave the Bulls rebounds. Sadikov held the fort down long enough for the Otters to take their lead to 4-0.

The size and speed of Sondre Olden was displayed for all to see at 16:36 of the second as linemate Mitchell Eisenberg sent the puck up-ice. Olden won a footrace before going in alone on Subban to beat him on the backhand through the legs.

Sadikov was at his best in the third period when the Bulls outdid Erie in scoring chances 5-0. Sadikov made 16 of 17 third period saves as Jake Worrad scored for the second time in as many nights with a nice snapshot under the crossbar at 16:43.

Try as they might, the Bulls just couldn't finish on their opportunities on Monday as they outshot the Otters 42-33. 

"I think it's fair to say we were outworked by a team with more urgency today," said Bulls Assistant Coach Jake Grimes. "Our below average performance may have come as a result of coming into this game a little too high after Saturday's 8-3 win along with the combination of the heavy schedule our team has had over the past two weeks."

Ramis Sadikov was named the afternoon's first star after he made 41 saves. "Once Erie got themselves into the lead, I thought Sadikov really upped his game," Grimes added. "It's not too often they've been able to lock down a victory like that early in the game this season and he got better and better regardless of what we sent his way."

The Bulls come away from a three game weekend with two of a possible six points as they still sit outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture by one point. The 27-28-1-0 Bulls have three games in hand on eighth placed Peterborough.

Next weekend sees another barrage of games as the Bulls embark on a three in three set with games in Brampton on Friday, at home to London on Saturday and in Peterborough on Sunday afternoon.

For tickets to Saturday night's game at  7:05pm against the London Knights, contact the Bulls Box Office at 613-966-8338 x 3885.