The South Muskoka Shield dropped another two games on the road, no thanks to a group of players who broke curfew after Friday night’s game in Elliot Lake to stay out late at an area restaurant.

Shield general manager Gord Carey said on Monday that the nine players who disobeyed the 1:30 a.m. curfew were penalized by watching Saturday night’s game against the Temiscaming Royals from the stands.

Coach Jeff Stack said it was a tough decision — one that took six or seven hours on behalf of the coaching staff — to discipline the players in that manner, but it’s nothing new.

“There is a curfew in Gravenhurst for players who go to school and there are curfews from time to time depending on the situation of the game,” he said, noting players who violate curfew have been benched in the past. “Maybe because they were all together they thought they could be a few minutes late.”

Stack said, in the players’ defence, the Elliot Lake/Temiscaming trip was the team’s first road trip of the year that involved staying overnight in a hotel.

“These are boys becoming men and sometimes boys stumble on their path to become men. It was a bad moment of judgment,” said Stack. “But, it (missing curfew) happens. It happens on other teams. I played hockey all my life and I’ve missed enough of my own curfews.”

“Obviously we wanted to win against Temiscaming. The guys played hard against Elliot Lake Friday night and lost a good game 4-2. We would have liked the same performance on Saturday,” he said.

Eight skaters — Dale Hatfield, Dylan Sontag, Garrett Hamel, Matt Whyte, Steve Vince, Will Rinaldi, Matt Mohan and Jordan Singor — and the team’s three goalies played Saturday’s game against the Royals and lost 10-2.

The Shield’s two goals against Temiscaming were scored by Sontag, assisted by Vince, Whyte and Rinaldi, who played nearly the whole third period.

With the short bench, Carey said all of the action was at one end of the rink with revolving Shield goalies Ryan Coté, Eric Pye and Steve Brown taking 61 shots on net versus the Shield’s 14.

He said there is no rule in the Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League handbook that establishes the minimum number of players to dress for a game. There is only a rule that establishes the maximum.

“I was concerned for the team — someone could have been hurt,” said Carey, noting forward Garrett Hamel injured his ankle during play. “I was embarrassed too. But I supported the coach’s decision to keep the boys in the stands.”

Shield captain Chris Vandertas was among the players who broke curfew by 40 minutes and said the guys “got carried away.”

He said the players didn’t intentionally break curfew, but it was 1:30 a.m. when they left the restaurant on foot and started the 30-minute walk back to the hotel.

“The guys who played tried their hearts out, which was good to see, but I felt bad because I should’ve been out there with them, but I screwed up the night before,” Vandertas said.

With three more regular season games, Stack said the team “will move on from here” and hopefully enters the playoffs on a high note.

The South Muskoka Shield returns to action at the Gravenhurst Centennial Centre versus the Espanola Kings tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. The team then plays two make-up games on the weekend before heading into playoffs. The Shield hosts the Bradford Rattlers Saturday night at 9 p.m. and then travels to Tweed on Sunday to play the Tamworth Cyclones.