KINGSTON, ON - The Belleville Bulls left the K-Rock Centre on Sunday afternoon likely feeling alot like the Baltimore Ravens. The wild world of sports drew an interesting parallel in the Bulls' final action of what's been a frustrating week of hard work and no results. As Billy Cundiff shanked a 32 yard field-goal effectively ending Baltimore's season in the AFC Championship game, Jordan Subban was ringing a slapshot off the goal post with Jordan Mayer unable to stuff the rebound past Igor Bobkov to extend Belleville's losing streak to 5 games in a 3-2 decision.

The Bulls' third consecutive one-goal loss didn't come about due to a lack of effort. The Bulls are working as hard as they ever have and that's the most frustrating part.

Despite a dreary month of January headed into action on Sunday that saw the Bulls with a 1-8-0-0 record, the team seemed to have turned a corner on Saturday night in a tight 5-4 loss to the Kitchener Rangers. The Bulls took the play to their opponent, outshooting them 42-24 and besting them in scoring chances by a tally of 23-12. If anything, the Bulls wanted to reproduce the energy and intense play they showed on Saturday night despite coming up just short on the scoreboard.

Fans on hand at the K-Rock Centre received an early reminder that the Belleville/Kingston rivalry is still alive and well as bone crushing hits and a competitive spirit were displayed in the opening shifts of the game. Despite an intimate gathering of sparsely scattered fans on a Sunday afternoon in Kingston, the Bulls set out to collect their first win of the weekend against a Frontenacs club that had allowed a combined 20 goals in losses to Kitchener and Oshawa in days prior.

Austen Brassard, who entered action with points in 6 of the team's 9 games this month was first to get on the scoresheet as his 23rd goal of the season at 12:19 got the Bulls up on the bench. Dylan Corson made the play possible off a clean faceoff win in the offensive zone back to Jason Shaw who released a quick wrister that was tipped by Brassard on it's journey past Bobkov to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead.

The Belleville lead was short lived however, as the guy assigned the role of filling the void left by Ryan Spooner stepped up in a big way. 16 year-old centreman Ryan Kujawinski will be a tough opponent for years to come and he displayed his great combination of size and speed as a give-and-go with Trevor Morbeck wound up in the back of the net courtesy a sharp biting backhander by the Iroqouis Falls native. Kujawinski's 4th of the season came at 13:18.

The East Division tug-of-war raged on just over a minute later as the Bulls converted on their third powerplay opportunity of the first period. Joseph Cramarossa 10th of the season and 4th as a Belleville Bull came via an assist by Jordan Subban who gave Cramarossa a low wrister to redirect past big Bobkov at 14:59.

The offensively dominated first period continued moments later as the Bulls saw an end to their lead. This time, overaged forward Conor Stokes benefitted from a hard forecheck by linemate David Mazurek, eventually putting a rebound through the legs of Charlie Graham that caromed in off his right skate. Due to the debatable nature of the goal, there was some deliberation by the officiating crew before it was deemed that the puck didn't enter the net off a kicking motion.

Less than a minute later at 18:14, the Frontenacs found themselves back in the lead as Kujawinski was sprung by a nice feed by Billy Jenkins to beat Graham on a nice backhand deke to give Kingston a 3-2 lead.

Kujawinski's second of the afternoon would finish the scoring as the Bulls saw six powerplays go by the wayside before finishing 1 for 7 on the afternoon in a 3-2 loss.

Assistant Coach Jake Grimes was short on words following the heartbreaking defeat. "The powerplay didn't provide the support we needed today and Bobkov was a wall in the third period. We threw a lot of rubber at their net and couldn't finish."

When asked if he thought the Bulls did what it took to win on Sunday, Grimes provided a mixed response. "I think it's important that throughout all of this, our guys maintain their composure. There is still a lot of season left ahead of us and many opportunities to redeem what may have been weaker outings that we've had in past weeks. With that being said, I don't think we had the necessary guys going at 100% to be certain that we'd come away with two points today. To win a game in this league, you're going to need your key contributors to be executing on their strengths and working together, I don't know that I can say we had that this afternoon."

For the third consecutive game, the Bulls outshot their opponent enroute to a one goal loss. A thrilling final minute of play featured the Bulls with a powerplay and an empty net, resulting in a 6 on 4 situation. In the final 23 seconds, Daniil Zharkov was robbed from the slot, Jordan Subban hit a goal post and Jordan Mayer couldn't stuff the rebound into a temporarily wide open net.

An Oshawa win over Barrie takes the Bulls out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture for the time being as they sit in 9th with a record of 22-21-1-0. The job will only get tougher, with a trip to Niagara on Thursday before returning home to host Ryan Spooner and the Sarnia Sting on Saturday.

Game time on Thursday night is 7:00pm at the Gatorade Garden City Complex in St. Catharines. Jack Miller will be going live on AM 800 CJBQ at 6:50pm. For more information on tickets to Saturday night's contest, contact the Bulls Box Office at 613-966-8338.