MONCTON, New Brunswick -- The Skipjacks' woes continued last night as they lost an 8-3 decision to the Moncton Hawks before 5,880 at the Moncton Civic Center.

The defeat, Baltimore's ninth game without a win, also left the Skipjacks winless for the six-game trip to the Maritime Provinces, prompting coach Barry Trotz to hold a closed door meeting afterward, which lasted about an hour after the final buzzer had sounded.

The Skipjacks showed some fire in the opening period against the Hawks, battling back from a 3-0 deficit to pull even. But their offense went into reverse and Moncton scored five unanswered goals.

Rookie Stu Burnes paced Moncton with three goals and an assist, and former Skipjack Rob Murray chipped in with two goals. Mark Kupel, Jason Cirone and Ross Romanik each scored a goal for the Hawks.

The Skipjacks were paced by John Purves, who scored his 40th goal of the season. Simon Wheeldon and Dennis Smith also scored for Baltimore.

The Skipjacks quickly fell behind 3-0, as Moncton did its scoring within a 49-second period -- Kupel scoring at 2:18, Murray at 2:57 and Romanik at 3:07.