Bullfrogs Get a Lift by Beating Vancouver

The Bullfrogs greeted visitors with grins and dramatic words when everything was over Sunday at the Pond.

The short-handed Bullfrogs couldn’t contain their excitement after their come-from-behind 7-6 victory over Vancouver in front of an announced crowd of 8,447.

The victory ended a two-game winless streak for the injury-riddled club and increased the team’s lead over Oklahoma to seven points in the Pacific Division of Roller Hockey International. The Bullfrogs and Coyotes play Wednesday at the Pond. On Tuesday, the Bullfrogs visit third-place San Diego, 13 points back.

“This was a great character win for us,” Coach Grant Sonier said. “We had a lot of guys suck up the extra floor time they got. It’s hard to play this way with so many players gone. This game certainly was a character builder for us.”

Rookie Glenn Stewart scored the game-winner, picking up a loose puck at the left of the crease and sending it just inside the left post beyond VooDoo goaltender Scott Humphrey with 1 minute 21 seconds remaining. Victor Gervais, who had two goals and an assist, had tied the score, 6-6, with a slap shot 40 seconds earlier.

“This was a huge character builder for our team,” Gervais said. “With all the key guys we were missing, to win like that, it was big.”

Stewart, who finished with his second hat trick in the last two weeks, has scored 11 goals in his last six games.

“When you are real short of people, someone has to step up and score,” Stewart said. “I got a lot of nice help.”

The Bullfrogs had to do without defenseman Darren Perkins, who chose not to skate after testing a sore leg muscle in warmups. Perkins, the team’s top goal scorer, became the fifth player out of the lineup Sunday. Two other defensemen also sat out, Joe Cook served a one-game suspension for fighting, and Darren Banks remained out because of a groin pull. B.J. MacPherson, who could have shifted from forward to the back line, was out with a wrist injury suffered in Friday’s 8-6 loss at San Jose.

Goaltender Eric Raymond was out because of an injured knee, which forced a tired Rob Laurie, who stopped 24 shots, to make his fifth consecutive start. Sonier juggled lines, occasionally placing Rick Judson and Savo Mitrovic on defense. The job became even more difficult after defenseman Mark Desantis was thrown out of the game for roughing with 6:39 seconds left.

“We had no lines tonight,” Sonier said. “We had an uneven number of guys. We tried to keep the three we had separated and we ran the forward through them.”

Vancouver held a 5-3 lead early in the third quarter, but the Bullfrogs got even on goals from Sean O’Brien and Jim Ficenec.

Defenseman Derry Menard scored on a power play with 5:09 remaining for a 6-5 lead after Desantis was tossed, but the Bullfrogs weren’t through.