The Frontenacs’ work week began with a bag skate on Tuesday.

They’re expecting the same this coming week after an error-riddled 8-6 loss to the Erie Otters at Slush Puppie Place Sunday afternoon.

Kingston coach Troy Mann alluded to “a puck-free video session” as the lead item in his practice plan. As unsettling as the viewing of Sunday’s lowlights might be for the players, it will be less trying than the ordeal Mann has in store when they step on the ice next.

Erie came into the game on a three-game losing streak, including defeats in Peterborough on Thursday and Ottawa on Friday. The Otters were shut out by the Petes and fell to the 67’s 6-1, and the knock of the squad this year has been a dearth of goals, having scored just 13 times in five games.

At an average 2.6 goals per contest, they were just about the last team to post a snowman on the scoring summary, especially at the end of a road trip.

Frontenacs captain Vann Williamson ruefully called the session “a track meet” and others compared it to a ball-hockey game, but no matter the labelling, it was hockey that offends Mann’s aesthetic of puck possession and defensive awareness.

His assessment of the loss was blunt: “Not a fun game to coach. We’re not in sync defensively.”

The game had started out promisingly enough for the home side.

The Frontenacs jumped up to a 2-0 lead through the first 11 minutes on goals by Robin Kuzma and Aleks Kulemin. That the Frontenacs only had three shots on goalie Liam Karbowski, the Otters’ ostensible back-up who had been in the net just 13 minutes three weeks into the regular season.

A harbinger of struggles ahead came with 62 seconds when Finnish import centre Luka Arkko scored his first OHL goal for Erie. The goal wasn’t against play—the Otters were outshooting Kingston 11-7 at that point and Kingston goalie Matt Minchak had to make a few tough saves along the way. Still, it was easy to like the Frontenacs’ chances.

Mann’s nightmare began with the puck drop in the second period. The Otters’ Evan Headrick and Michael Dec scored in the first two minutes to give the visitors the lead and suck the oxygen out of the arena.

Nolan Snyder tied the game on a Kingston powerplay a couple of minutes later, the Frontenacs’ third goal coming on just their eighth shot to that point. If Karbowski was there for the taking, it didn’t matter—the starter’s pistol in Williamson’s track meet had already been fired.

Space on the newspaper page and bandwith on the internet doesn’t allow of the full catalogue of the Frontenacs’ mistakes, miscues and misfires in the second period of the Erie game. Among the most conspicuous were those made by Adam Goljer, the heralded Slovak defenceman.

With Kingston on a powerplay a few shifts after Snyder’s goal and well-positioned to regain the lead, Goljer made a bad pinch at the blueline and Otters penalty-killers had a two-on-one, Jake Murray finishing off Kayden Edwards’s set-up to put Erie up 4-3.

Again, Kingston came back getting goals from Goljer and Kulemin to regain the lead. Goljer scored on a powerplay and to celebrate he made a show of brushing his shoulder, as if to communicate his lack of worry about any knocking. In any study of narratives this qualifies as temptation of the fates.

On the shift after Kulemin’s goal, loose play by Williamson and his defensive partner Andre Mondoux, Kingston’s first pairing, led a goal by Lucas Ambrosio, tying the game 5-all.

“Williamson and Mondoux had a good game against Peterborough [in a 5-3 Kingston win] Friday night,” Mann said. “They should be reliable.”

The inference to draw was that they were less than that Sunday.

And if singling out Goljer might feel a tad unfair, his turnovers in all zones of the ice were no less glaring and as critical was the gaffe made Alex McLean’s on a Kingston powerplay. Despite having open ice to clear the puck, McLean stick-handled into trouble, and seconds later Mclean Agrette’s goal had his Otters teammates celebrating. Erie led 6-5 at the end of the frenetic second period and the visitors couldn’t have guessed that this goal had put them ahead to stay.

Liam Beamish put Erie ahead by two four minutes into the final frame, but Alex McLean’s fourth goal of the year made it 7-6. With 15 minutes left in the track meet, it seemed like one of the teams and made both could hit double figures but the official scorer’s workload slowed.

Beamish added an insurance goal with a little over six minutes left in regulation.

Matt Minchak stopped only 31 of 39 shots and saw his goals-against average climb to 6.09 with and .840 save percentage. Mann suggested the high volume of Erie shots were at least in part a by-product of Minchak’s lack of rebound control.

“He creates a lot of work for us,” Mann said. “I thought about pulling him a couple of times.”

With the loss, Kingston drops to 3-4-0-0 for the season. The Frontenacs next play the Barrie Colts at the Sadlon Arena Thursday night.