The South Muskoka Shield Jr. A hockey team has five more games before playoffs to break out of a losing streak exacerbated by two more losses last month.

The Bradford Rattlers and King City Wild trounced the Shield 9-3 and 9-5 respectively, boosting the team’s January slump to six losses in seven games.

The recent setbacks drop the Shield to eighth place with 39 points three games in hand in the 13-team Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League. The team’s record is two games above 500 at 17-15-0-5.

Coach Jeff Stack attributes the losses to a combination of things, including some recent “hot goaltending.”

“You can’t use injuries as an excuse for not winning games, but when key guys go down, the younger guys need to step up from time to time,” he said. “We’ve had more trouble getting the puck in the net, but I’m happy with how much we’ve improved. At the beginning from the schedule I expected to be in the playoffs just over 500 and a middle-of-the-pack team.”

Defence continues to be a challenge for the Shield with three young defencemen only 16 and 17 years of age. “One 1991 and two 1990s are young for Jr. A defenceman,” Stack said. “They’re going to make mistakes young guys make. The whole team needs to play better team defence, which could seem like a scoring slump since we’re focusing on defence.”

Stack said the most important thing before playoffs is a healthy team and some of the team’s scoring leaders — Nick Leigh (47 points) and Travis Saltz (51 points) — are back in the lineup.

“We’re getting healthier. (Sylvester) Spencer is skating now but not ready to play yet and (Matt) Foley’s not coming back because of hand surgery. (Jesse) Goheen has been in and out with injury, but he’ll be back in the lineup on a regular basis and that should help us out.”

Stack said Garrett Hamel is getting more ice time and starting to come back into his own.

This weekend’s play action takes the Shield up north on a road trip against the Elliot Lake Bobcats and Temiscaming Royals.

“It will be really big and will help us to see where we’re sitting, but it’s not going to be easy at all,” he said.

The team will also be dealing with the loss of Edmonton forward Anthony Neville, who was sent home due to a personal issue, Stack said. “The way he felt he should act off the ice is not the way the team wants its players to act,” he explained.

Playoffs commence later this month with all 13 teams in the league given a berth. Due to the odd number, the top three teams in the league will be given the choice of taking a bye and the remaining 10 teams will play best-of-seven series in the first round. Top teams are also able to choose who they will play against.