Bullfrogs Reach the Finals, Then Get Bad News

The Bullfrogs beat Vancouver in a rough-and-tumble affair Tuesday night to advance to their second Roller Hockey International playoff final, but the 6-1 victory took back stage to brawling by RHI owners.

With some of their most inspired play of the season, the Bullfrogs took a 4-0 third-quarter lead at the Pond with goals from four different skaters and went on to win the deciding third game of the Western Conference series.

Goaltender Rob Laurie got his 12th victory of the year and 16th career playoff win. He stopped 31 shots and the Bullfrogs, urged by Coach Grant Sonier to shoot more, battered Vancouver goaltender Robert Bell with a playoff-high 47 shots.

Laurie, voted the game’s most valuable player, received a standing ovation from the announced crowd of 6,797 after the game and returned to the floor shirtless as fans chanted his name.

But when he returned to the locker room minutes later, he found a totally different scene. Sonier told the team that league owners had voted earlier in the day to strip the Bullfrogs of home advantage for the Murphy Cup, despite having the best regular-season record in the league.

That means the best-of-three championship series begins Friday at the Pond, then moves to Orlando Sunday, and Monday if needed.

The Orlando Jackals won the Eastern Conference title Tuesday with an 8-7 victory over St. Louis. Jackals owner Norton Herrick led a successful fight to have owners change RHI rules, which stated that the team with the best overall record has home advantage in the playoffs.

A memo from RHI headquarters reaffirmed the rule two weeks ago, but the league’s executive committee, in a rebuke to Commissioner Ralph Backstrom and his staff, voted 3-2, with Blades owner Jeanie Buss casting the deciding vote, according to Bullfrog President Stuart Silver, to make the change. The Bullfrogs finished the regular season 22-4-2. Orlando was 17-9-2.

Silver said a group of East Coast owners felt the East deserved to have the home advantage in the Murphy Cup because the Bullfrogs hosted the all-star game in July.

The Bullfrogs were quick to pounce on the decision.

“We got shafted,” said Silver.

Savo Mitrovic said the players were “devastated.”

“It’s unjust,” he said. “I can’t believe they would vote on a thing like that after rules had been set.”

Vancouver Coach David Cairns, whose team finished the regular season with the third best record, was equally upset.

“My heart goes out to Anaheim,” he said. “It’s time for this league to take a look at itself and where it wants to go. They weren’t just screwing Anaheim, they were screwing a lot of players who worked hard all season long to get the advantage. Maybe we don’t want to be a part of this anymore.”

It was a bizarre day for the league, which raised eyebrows when it named Long Island Jawz forward Hugo Belanger its most valuable player. Belanger led the league with 101 points, but quit two weeks before the end of the regular season to play for a German ice hockey team. The Jawz held first place in the Eastern Division at the time, but tumbled out of contention after Belanger left.

Even Tuesday’s game was different, at least by RHI standards. Play was about as physical as RHI games are allowed to get. The referee crew, flown in special to work the final two games of this series, let the skaters play and each team increased their checking dramatically. Several punches were thrown, there were a lot of clinches, but few penalties were called.

The Bullfrogs scored first on a goal by B.J. MacPherson with 9 minutes 16 seconds left in the second quarter. Then, 30 seconds later, Rick Judson dove by outstretched Vancouver goaltender Robert Bell into the crease and knocked the puck into the net.

Joe Cook, who left the game with a knee injury late in the third quarter, made it 3-0 only 23 seconds into the second half. Mitrovic, who finished with two goals, scored another on a driving slap shot about three minutes later.

Vancouver scored with 8:09 left in the third on a goal by Shayne Green. Glenn Stewart gave the Bullfrogs a 5-1 lead with his sixth goal of the playoffs early in the fourth quarter.