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In the corner of the New Mexico Scorpions' locker room, Matt Frick sat with his head against his locker.

His skates were still tied, his jersey was on and beads of sweat clung to his playoff beard. He shook his head.

"It's just so tough," he said.

Short-handed, banged up and facing the Central Hockey League's top playoff performers, the Scorpions finally saw their season expire with a series-ending 4-1 loss to the Laredo Bucks Sunday afternoon at Santa Ana Star Center.

"We're obviously very proud of how far we've come," Scorpions head coach Ray Edwards said. "We've overcome a lot this year."

Before running into the red-hot Bucks, the Scorpions had strung together an improbable run dating back to late November, when they were looking up from the basement of the CHL.

A few key signings and several unlikely heroes propelled the Scorps to their first CHL division title, their first CHL playoff series victory and the first Game 7 victory in team history.

Frick said he believes the ups and downs of the regular season hardened him and his mates for the playoff run.

"We had to fight tooth and nail to get through that first half of the season," he said. "Going through adversity like we did is the reason that we got this far."

Ultimately, the one thing the Scorpions could not fight through was the injury bug. Before the series against Laredo started, center Ryan McLeod had to leave the team for personal reasons. In Game 1 against Laredo, the Scorps then lost center Jamie Herrington to a dislocated shoulder. Two games later, rookie Mike Prpich - leading the league with 14 playoff goals - was sidelined with an internal injury. To top it off, Edwards was forced to move two of his defenseman to forward to fill out the customary three lines of skaters. That left four skaters to patrol the blue line, many of them already battered.

"These guys could've easily just mailed it in," Edwards said of his club. "But they battled till the end. We just didn't have enough left."

The victory gave Laredo a 4-1 series win and secured them a spot in the Ray Miron Cup finals for a league-record fourth consecutive time. There, they will defend their title as CHL champions against either the Colorado Eagles or the Memphis Riverkings. Colorado leads that series 3-2, with Game 6 slated for Tuesday.

"This would have been a different series if we could've stayed healthy," Frick said. "We know that, and I think (Laredo) does, too."

For now, the focus of Scorpions camp will shift to next season. With 10 of the 18 players on the Scorps' final playoff roster as rookies, Edwards said he hopes to keep much of the same base that brought so much success to New Mexico this season.

"We got here to the conference finals, but the reality is that we won't get everyone back (next year)," Edwards said. "Guys go their different directions, but it would be nice to bring back a lot of these guys who had such great first years."