Very rarely will you hear a hockey coach offer up an excuse for his team.

But after seeing his Bruins come out totally flat in a 4-1 loss to the lowly Seattle Thunderbirds Sunday night, assistant coach Bob Rouse was quick to point out the team’s schedule of late.

Sunday’s game represented the team’s third in three nights, fourth in five nights and eighth in 12 nights — a gruelling stretch by any definition.

“We’re not going to read too much into this because we recognize that we’ve played a lot of hockey lately,” Rouse noted. “It’s physically and mentally tough for guys who are still growing and developing. The older guys are playing a tonne of minutes, and it all adds up.”

Coming off a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday, the Bruins seemed to have some energy early, opening the scoring at the four minute mark on Dylen McKinlay’s 10th of the year.

But momentum started to slip away five minutes later when Vancouver Canucks prospect Prab Rai scored a short-handed goal.

The roof caved in during the second period, an awful 20 minutes in which the Bruins were out-shot 14-6 and out-scored 2-0.

Rai scored his second of the game at 16:46, tipping a Jeremy Schappert point shot past Lucas Gore.

Less than one minute later, Sena Acolatse pounced on a loose puck in the Chilliwack goal crease, poking it home for his fifth of the season and a 3-1 Seattle lead. At that point, the Bruins had absolutely nothing left in the tank.

They generated just five shots on net in period three, letting Seattle escape with a fairly easy victory.

“Seattle serves some credit, because they had to drive all the way up here after playing in Portland Saturday night,” Rouse said. “They put a pretty good game together under the circumstances. I think our emotion carried us through the first period, and we just didn’t have the legs after that.”

But down in a very quiet locker room, rookie defenceman Tyler Stahl was downplaying the idea that fatigue played a role in the outcome.

“We get taken care of really well around here, with good meals and lots of rest,” Stahl said. “So while it is hard to play so many games in such a short time frame, it’s not an excuse for what happened tonight.”

Having said that, Stahl was at a loss to explain what might have occured against a struggling Seattle team that came into the game with just four wins in 20 outings.

“We tried our best and things just didn’t go our way,” Stahl said. “I don’t know if there is a good explanation for this. All we can do is put it behind us, come out in the next game and get things done.”

Stahl generated one of the very few highlights for the home side.

Midway through the second period, the Alberta native flew across the ice to launch a devastating hit on Seattle blueliner Brenden Dillon, stapling him into the boards at the Chilliwack blueline.

He was immediately jumped by Thunderbirds tough guy Colin Jacobs.

“We had some forwards coming back, and he had his head down,” Stahl said, talking about the hit. “I hoped it would spark the team and give the guys some energy.”

Stahl and company must now summon the energy to take on a daunting foe tomorrow afternoon at Prospera Centre.

The Vancouver Giants roll into town for a Remembrance Day matchup, looking to continue their dominance of the locals.

Vancouver is 2-0 against Chilliwack this season, including an 8-2 thumping of the Bruins Nov. 1.

That one-sided loss is still fresh in Stahl’s mind as he prepares for Wednesday’s game.

“It’s never too hard for us to get up for the Giants,” Stahl said. “That 8-2 loss in Vancouver really hurt, and we’ll be thinking about that when we line up to play them.”

Year after year, the Giants seem to lose talent, yet re-load seamlessly.

Vancouver lost a full corps of defencemen in the off-season, including standout Jonathan Blum.

But Vancouver Canucks prospect Kevin Connauton has replaced much of Blum’s offensive production, with 19 points in 22 games from the back end.

Up front, Craig Cunningham and J.T. Barnett have stepped up their games, with 12 goals apiece.

Brendan Gallagher has 11 goals and 20 points in 22 games, and newcomers Cass Mappin (Red Deer) and Milan Kytnar (Saskatoon) have added to the O.