OSHAWA, ON - If the Belleville Bulls plan to come away with 4 of a possible 6 points this weekend, a short memory will serve them well.

An 8-1 loss at the hands of the Oshawa Generals on Friday night saw the team drop their second lopsided contest this week as Scott Laughton's three goals and an assist robbed the Bulls of any jump they planned on bringing into an important weekend of hockey.

The night started off sour for the Bulls, who fell behind 2-0 after the first period largely due to penalty trouble. The Bulls were on the receiving end of four consecutive first period minors.

Austen Brassard and Andy Andreoff started the game off with a bang, dropping the mitts just eight seconds after the opening faceoff. The dust up would earn them fighting majors as well as game misconducts as the Bulls lost their leading goal scorer for the remainder of the night. The one game suspension that accompanies a fight off the opening draw sees the Bulls lose Brassard for Saturday night's contest against Mississauga as well.

The two teams swapped hits and forechecks in the early going before the Bulls wound up making multiple trips to the sin bin, giving Oshawa's 8th ranked powerplay an opportunity to capitalize. Up 5-on-3, they certainly did.

Christian Thomas' lightning quick release gave Oshawa a 1-0 lead after the Generals hemmed three Belleville penalty killers in tight to Malcolm Subban's net before Thomas snapped a shot through the legs of Brendan Gaunce, but through the legs of Subban as well. Thomas' 28th at 12:03 had the Bulls on the run early.

Just over two minutes later, Scott Laughton banked what looked to be a cross-crease pass off of Bulls defender Jordan Subban and into an open cage as the elder Subban in goal for the Bulls reacted to the initial pass. 

The Bulls had a strong finish to the first, staking themselves to a 5 on 3 powerplay and applying pressure on Generals goaltender Kevin Bailie. A late attempt by Daniil Zharkov from the bottom of the right circle was thwarted as the Bulls were forced into the intermission down 2-0 in front of a packed house at the General Motors Centre.

After Subban made a fine save to stop Emerson Clark off the rush seven minutes into the second period, the puck wasn't cleared and Clark would make the score 3-0 after he played pinball in the slot and came up a winner, banking a shot in behind Subban through a maze of skates at 7:20.

Sebastian Uvira stretched the Oshawa lead to 4-0 at 12:20 with a nifty double-fake to the backhand in alone on a breakaway. The Bulls turned the puck over at the Oshawa blueline and never recovered as Uvira was off to the races for his 13th of the season.

After Laughton scored his second of the night to make it 5-0, the Bulls got on the board with Daniil Zharkov potting his second powerplay goal in as many games. Zharkov scored in almost an identical fashion to his goal on Wednesday night as he camped out at the bottom of the circle and beat Bailie over the glove on the short side to give the Bulls faithful in attendance something to cheer about.

Malcolm Subban's night would be finished after 40 minutes as he was pulled for the second time in three starts. Subban allowed five goals on 25 shots and took the loss on the night.

Charlie Graham would allow three more in the third period as Laughton notched his hat-trick while Lucas Lessio and Scott Sabourin rounded out the scoring for Oshawa.

The 8-1 final has the Bulls being outscored 23-5 over their last three contests. There were a total of five fights in the game in front of 5,793 in Oshawa. Brendan Gaunce suffered a cut under the eye in his tilt with Oshawa's Sabourin and needed some minor repairs. 

The Gens took a sweep of the three stars with Matt Petgrave, Nicklas Jensen and Scott Laughton taking the honours.

The Bulls are right back at it on Saturday night against the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors at the Yard Barn. The Majors took a 3-2 shootout loss at home to Brampton Friday while goaltender Brandon Maxwell made 47 saves. The Majors beat the Bulls 3-2 on January 18th at the Yardmen.

There's plenty for the Bulls to prove on Saturday as they sit one point out of a playoff spot with a record of 26-27-1-0 on the season. The 24-24-1-6 Majors are two points ahead of Belleville in the Eastern Conference. Game time is 7:05pm. For tickets call 613-966-8338 x 3885 or order online here.