And in a radical departure from past performances, their defensive play is proving to be the major culprit.
The Calgary Hitmen scored three goals in the first period, extended their lead to 5-2 through two and would go on to a 7-3 victory over the Warriors in Calgary on Friday night.
The loss was the fourth in a row for the Tribe and saw them drop back to .500 at 5-5-0-0 on the season. More ominously, the last three losses have each seen the opposition score six goals or more for a total of 25 goals against over the last four games.
The contest started well enough for the Warriors, as Jadon Joseph scored the game’s opening goal at the 7:04 mark of the first. That would be the last good news in the period, as Calgary’s Orca Wiesblatt, Jonas Peterek and Carson Focht all scored in the final 10:05 of the frame to give Calgary their 3-1 lead.
Focht extended the edge to 4-1 early in the second before Ryder Korczak scored his first of the game against his former team with 4:28 gone in the period.
Weisblatt picked up his second goal three minutes later to restore the three goal lead.
Sean Tschigerl and Mark Kastelic added goals for the Hitmen in the third; Korczak closed out scoring in the game with 1:24 to play.
As the final score would indicate, the ice was severely tilted in Calgary’s favour: Warriors goaltender Bailey Brkin was peppered with 46 shots, while the Tribe could only manage 16 overall on the Hitmen’s Jack McNaughton, including only two in the third period.
Calgary improved to 5-2-1-0 with the win.
The Warriors will look to rebound tonight when they travel to Lethbridge to face the Hurricanes. The contest will be a rematch from Tuesday night’s 6-0 loss at Mosaic Place.
