San Jose Turns Out Lights on Bullfrogs : Roller hockey: Rhinos advance to the RHI finals after beating Anaheim in the mini-game to clinch series.

The Bullfrogs were powerless to prevent the end of their season Saturday at The Pond.

Ken Colbourne scored a power-play goal with 41 seconds left in the 12-minute mini-game to give San Jose a 2-1 victory over the Bullfrogs in Roller Hockey International’s Western Conference final Saturday before 10,182.

San Jose (6-0 in the playoffs) advances to the RHI championship series, which starts Tuesday. The Rhinos take on the winner of the St.Louis-Montreal series, which St. Louis leads, 1-0, after winning the opener Friday, 7-3.

San Jose (19-11 overall) went a man up with 1:30 left when the Bullfrog Victor Gervais was called for slashing. The call was a surprise considering the number of more serious incidents were not called in overtime.

The Bullfrogs pulled goalie Rob Laurie for the final 41 seconds but could not score.

San Jose scored first in the mini-game when Jay Murphy got one in the upper-left corner of the net with eight minutes left.

The Bullfrogs’ Daniel Shank scored about two minutes later to tie it. He had four goals in the two games.

The Bullfrogs had a power-play chance in the mini-game starting with 6:01 left but failed to score on five shots.

But that problem was nothing new to the Bullfrogs, who were zero for eight in the regulation game and one for 11 in the first game of the series.

“I don’t know if there are words to describe what happened,” Bullfrog Coach Grant Sonier said. “It’s an absolute tragedy.”

Laurie, a all-star each of the last two seasons, had 34 saves in the regular game and two more in the mini-game. Some of his best work came in the second half of the first game.

Late in the third quarter, the Bullfrogs led, 7-4, when Darren Banks was checked hard. No call was made against a San Jose player.

Banks, who had his helmet knocked from his head, soon retaliated with a hard hit from behind and received a four-minute major.

Once near the penalty box, he turned and raced across the rink toward the San Jose bench where he was intercepted by officials.

Banks was given a game misconduct penalty and San Jose got a penalty shot.

But Laurie was able make a diving save to his glove side to stop Mark Woolf’s shot.

The celebration was short though. There was still the matter of San Jose having a man-advantage for four minutes.

The Bullfrog defense--led by Laurie--was equal to the task, not allowing a goal in seven shots.

The Bullfrogs’ Joe Cook even came up with a short-handed goal with 9:57 left in the game to give the Bullfrogs an 8-4 lead.

The Bullfrogs were in command early in the regulation game and led, 6-2, at the half thanks mostly to their inspired play in the first quarter.

The first quarter offered as much action as many full games as the Bullfrogs took a 5-1 lead.

The teams kept up the physical play of the first game but this time the Bullfrogs got much better results.

Todd Wetzel had a the most dramatic goal, on a penalty shot, with 2:54 left in the quarter.

Wetzel skated down the middle of the rink and flicked the puck between the legs of the the San Jose goalie Jon Gustafson.

The play came about because the Bullfrogs’ Darren Perkins was taken down from behind by Blaine Moore.

A great deal of pushing and shoving occurred between the players for about a minute after the play.

Shank helped the Bullfrogs got off to a quick start with two goals in the first 3:14.

His second goal was made possible when Gervais absorbed a hard check behind the San Jose net. He then sent a quick pass to Shank, who was alone in front.