The Orangeville Crushers found themselves on the wrong side of the score card this past weekend, dropping a 7-4 decision on the road Friday night to the Collingwood Blues.

Collingwood set the pace early with a goal from Eric Cox exactly seven minutes into the game before Dan Minor and Matt Chiarantano would set up Norm Ezekiel, evening the score at 1-1 five minutes later.

Collingwood would catch some energy playing before the hometown crowd, adding a pair off the top of two before Mike Arnold notched his 25th of the season with assists going to Kirk Evely and Matt Crilly.

The Blues again came back on strong, slipping another pair past Andy Groulx to make it 5-2 just under seven minutes into the third.

Jarrod Connelly and Curtis Longland put some snap back into the Crushers stride drawing Orangeville back to within one at the 9:08 mark.

Penalty trouble again proved to be deadly for Orangeville as the Blues took full advantage of the opportunities presented to them, scoring a pair in the last half of the third to seal the 7-4 victory.

With only eight games remaining in the regular season schedule, the week ahead will prove to be a true test for the character of this team.

Having been edged from fourth to fifth in the standings by North York, the Crushers know they are in a must win position when they return for a tough, three game home stand.

On Friday night, Dixie makes the trek to Orangeville followed by Couchiching on Saturday and with Aurora taking over the visitors bench on Tuesday.

All three games will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Alder Street Community Centre.