Morale within the Basingstoke Bison set-up has hit rock bottom, according to Bison forward Jeremy Cornish.
Basingstoke lost 4-3 in a vital league match at home to Edinburgh on Saturday, then endured an 8-0 defeat at Cardiff in the Knockout Cup on Sunday.
"Morale has got to be lifted; it can't get any worse than this," Cornish told BBC Berkshire after Saturday's game.
"That was the most important game of the year. We have to surprise some teams quick and just keep going."
The Bison, rooted to the foot of ice hockey's Elite League, must overhaul fellow strugglers Hull and Edinburgh to reach the Elite League play-offs.
But Edinburgh made light of an eight-hour coach journey to edge out the home team on Saturday, and the Bison's misery was compounded by a thrashing in their Sunday tie at Cardiff.
Cornish expressed disappointment, and particular dismay at the officials, following Saturday's defeat.
"That's the most upset I've been all year," he said.
"We needed to win that game and we didn't. We needed the first goal - that's what we set out to do and it's what we did. We're all pretty down right now.
"There were some questionable calls, and the boarding call on Greg Chambers was the worst call I've seen in five years.
"It was a hold, a shove, nothing someone's little brother couldn't have done. It was a lousy call and I wish we could have that one back."
The Bison's man of the match on the night, Brent Hughes, agreed.
"They called Chambers on a boarding call to make it a five-on-three when he clearly held himself up going up against the guy. But that's just the way it goes. There's nothing you can do about it.
"We knew this was the biggest game of the year. Both sides played pretty hard and it was just that some penalties that I don't think should have been called did get called."
The one glimmer of hope for Basingstoke is the imminent return of goaltender Kevin Reiter, widely hailed as the team's player of the season so far.
Reiter suffered an ankle injury in December, but Cornish believed he was on the mend.
"Kevin is walking without a limp now," he said. "They said one to two weeks; it could be three. He's doing his physio and it's day-to-day."
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