Bullfrogs Comeback Falls Short, 5-4

    The two teams were either very evenly matched, very sluggish, or both. Neither team managed 30 shots on goal for the game, and each team was held scoreless in a quarter. The Bullfrogs were without several key players: standout goalie Rob Laurie, who was in Finland playing for Team USA in the IIHF Inline World Championships; defenseman and assistant coach Darren Perkins, who was behind the bench but did not play due to an eye socket injury suffered during the ice hockey season; defenseman Tom Menicci, who attended his sister's wedding; and forward Kevin Kerr, who will not join the team until late June.

    San Jose struck first, only 2:15 into the contest when Tomas Kapusta fired a shot past backup Bullfrog goalie Rick Plester, who played earlier in the day in Huntington Beach for Pro Beach Hockey. After a hooking penalty on Sean Whyte of the Bullfrogs, the Rhinos took four straight penalties, their only penalties of the game, with three being on Mike Taylor. The Bullfrogs were not able to capitalize until the third penalty, when Hugo Belanger scored a power play goal on assists from Kevin St. Jacques and Whyte. Angry Rhino Taylor was sent back to the box for his third penalty for unsporstmanlike conduct after the Bullfrog goal.

    The second quarter belonged to the Rhinos and goalie Ferguson, who stopped all eight Bullfrog shots in the quarter. His Rhino teammates, however, scored three times on nine shots to take a commanding 4-1 halftime lead. The Rhinos scored twice within 43 seconds in the fourth minute, then added a critical goal with only 23 seconds left in the half to send the Bullfrogs into the locker room down big. The disparity in scoring in the second quarter would later prove costly to the Bullfrogs.

    Apparently feeling comfortable with the 3-goal lead, Rhinos coach Guy Gadowsky sat Ferguson, replacing him with backup Dennis Basett. The move appeared irrelevant when, at 5:27 into the quarter, Mike Jickling fired an unassisted goal past Plester to make the score 5-1. The 4-goal deficit seemed to awaken the slumbering Bullfrog offense, because Mark Stitt scored an unassisted goal of his own only 7 seconds later. Three minutes later, Kevin St. Jacques pulled the Bullfrogs back within two when he scored on Basett, making the score 5-3 at the end of the third quarter.

    The fourth quarter was marked by a strong defensive tone, perhaps aided by fatigue on the part of both teams. Each team managed only three shots in the quarter, but one was by Hugo Belanger, who usually finds the back of the net, which he did with only 3:53 left in the contest. With time ticking down under a minute, the Bullfrogs had a difficult time controlling the puck so that Plester could be pulled for an extra attacker. At last the Bullfrogs controlled the puck, but were unable to get off a quality shot, even with the extra skater, and the Rhinos held on to win, 5-4.

    The victory marked the return of 1998 Bullfrog scoring leader Mark Woolf, who was held pointless in the contest. Woolf led the Bullfrogs in nearly every offensive category in 1998, but has returned to his RHI team, having played for the Rhinos from 1994-97.

Scoring Summary
 

San Jose	1	3	1	0	5
Bullfrogs	1	0	2	1	4

SJ  - Kapusta(G,A), Trumbley(G,A), Jickling(G,A), Spenrath, Rushforth
Ana - Belanger(2G,PPG), St. Jacques(G,3A), Stitt

Scoring by Quarter

1st -- 1, SJ, Kapusta (Bondarev, Elders), 2:15. 2, Ana, Belanger, (St. Jacques, Whyte), 9:11 (pp). Penalties -- Whyte, Ana (hooking), 3:51; Taylor, SJ (hooking), 4:19; Elders, SJ (holding), 4:55; Taylor, SJ (roughing), 8:36; Taylor, SJ (unsportsmanlike conduct), 9:11.

2nd -- 3, SJ, Trumbley (Taylor), 4:01. 4, SJ, Spenrath (Jickling, Kapusta), 4:43. 5, SJ, Rushforth (Purdie, Trumbley), 11:38.
Penalties -- Barahona, Ana (elbowing), 8:49.

3rd -- 6, SJ, Jickling, 5:27. 7, Ana, Stitt, 5:34. 8, Ana, St. Jacques (Barahona, Seibel), 8:32. Penalties -- Therrien, Ana (kneeing), 12:00.

4th -- 9, Ana, Belanger (St. Jacques, Barahona), 3:53.
Penalties -- None.
 

Shots on goal
SJ  8-9-7-3--27.
Ana 6-8-9-3--26.

Goaltenders
SJ  - Ferguson (W, 1-0) 13 saves on 14 shots
      Basett             9 saves on 12 shots
Ana - Plester  (L, 0-1) 22 saves on 27 shots

Att -- 6,540.