Flat Bullfrogs Lose Season Opener

It didn’t take the Bullfrogs long to score their first goal of the new Roller Hockey International season Saturday night at the Pond. Team captain Victor Gervais took care of that, flipping the puck over the right shoulder of San Diego veteran goalie Francois Ouellette 15 seconds after the opening faceoff.

But the Bullfrogs had very little going for themselves after that.

In fact, if anything is to be learned from Anaheim’s surprising 5-4 loss to the Barracudas, it’s that the league needs to add a few exhibition games to its schedule.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys who are just learning the game,” Bullfrog forward Darren Perkins said. “We came out flat in the second half and you won’t win too many hockey games if we play like that.”

Anaheim led, 4-2, with 8:50 to go in the second quarter and never scored again. The Bullfrogs outshot San Diego, 27-10 in the first half. Ouellette, an old nemesis, stopped 37 shots and his teammates countered, with Clark Polglase getting the winner 12 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Just about everything seemed a little bit off for the Bullfrogs Saturday night. The game began 25 minutes late so Bullfrog officials could make some special presentations.

And the announced crowd of 10,111 looked much smaller than last season’s 14,000-plus that attended the opener. There were even a few boos from the crowd, which was strangely quiet most of the night.

Both teams appeared rusty, as expected, and some of the newcomers found out quickly that there are more than a few subtle differences between ice hockey and this game.

Take for instance, San Diego’s Brad Belland, who fell down after catching a wheel in the checkerboard SportCourt floor while skating uncontested away from the puck. Or Bullfrog rookie Scott Bell, who seemed unsure of his wheels and took a few tumbles.

But credit the Barracudas, who rebounded from an 8-4 loss to San Jose on Friday.

“I thought the first half we were in sync, but in the second we stopped moving our feet,” Bullfrog Rick Judson said.

“Some of our guys have been playing long ice hockey seasons. It’s not that we were tired, but we came out flat in the second half.”