With three straight losses, the CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins' success on the road this year came to an abrupt halt on the weekend.
The Bruins went winless on a three-game swing to La Ronge, Battlefords and Kindersley, extending their losing streak to five games.
"Our all-around play was shaky. We were not the team that we normally are. It wouldn't be fair to pin it on our defencemen, but I'd say our defensive play was (lacking). Our work ethic has to improve," head coach Chris Lewgood said of a trip that saw the Bruins surrender 15 goals in three games.
The trip began with a 6-4 loss to the Ice Wolves on Friday. The Bruins then fell 4-2 to the North Stars on Saturday and 5-1 against the Klippers on Sunday. They sat at 10-11-2-2 entering last night's game against Humboldt.
"We've got a lot of injuries right now and our guys are starting to wear down a little bit. We've got nicks and bruises and other guys out of the lineup," Lewgood said, noting that aside from injured forwards Ben Johnstone and Lynnden Pastachak and goalie Brett Lewchuk, several other players were playing hurt on the weekend.
On Friday, left winger Austin Daae led the Bruins with a hat trick against the Wolves, with all three goals coming in the third period, but it wasn't enough.
La Ronge got goals from Cole Golka, Michael Sagen and Sebastien Beauregard in the first five minutes of the game, and that proved to be the difference.
Keegan Allison got the Bruins on the board four minutes into the second period, but Wolves forward Rhett Kehoe got that one back 54 seconds later to make it 4-1, and Golka scored again 21 seconds after that.
Daae tallied three times in a span of seven minutes in the third period to get the Bruins back in it.
Jared Iron had the Wolves' last goal midway through the third.
The Bruins outshot the Wolves 44-36.
Lewgood said Saturday's loss to the Stars was his team's best effort of the weekend, but putting "two pucks in our own net" didn't help.
"The honest truth is we deserved a little better that night, but when you play a good team like Battlefords, or any team with the parity in the league this year, if you make mistakes, they'll hurt you."
The North Stars led 2-1 after the first period, with Nick Fountain and Kyle Schmidt scoring power play goals. Schmidt's marker with 16 seconds left put the Stars on top after Daae tied it midway through the frame.
Tanner Froese tied it 2-2 five minutes into the second on a power play goal.
The deadlock remained until late in the third period, when Braden Lacoursiere and Latrell Charleson scored less than two minutes apart to give the home side some breathing room.
The Bruins outshot the Stars 39-38.
On Sunday, Austin Roesslein had Estevan's lone goal at 4:21 of the third period on a power play, as the Klippers romped to a blowout win.
Kindersley scored the first four goals of the game, with Colby Daniels potting two and Eric Pouliot and Stefan Seel adding singles. Seel scored his second of the game later in the third.
Daniels led the Klippers with four points.
The shots were 31-29 for Kindersley.
Daae and Froese led the Bruins offensively with six and four points respectively on the weekend, but Lewgood said the club needs more secondary scoring and has to do a better job of capitalizing on their scoring chances.
With Humboldt in town last night and a road trip to Melfort and Flin Flon on Friday and Saturday, Lewgood said his team has to win more battles for the puck and raise its compete level in order to get back on track.
"We've gotta put more pucks on the net and drive hard to the net for rebounds," he added.
