A Punch Is Postscript to a Title

Another league, another world title.

A profound embarrassment.

The Bullfrogs didn’t get to enjoy the pinball-like scoring they had in their first two playoff games, but they enjoyed the outcome just the same.

Well, for a few minutes, anyway.

The team that dominated Major League Roller Hockey brought its season-long pursuit of a title to fruition Wednesday, avenging its only blemish by scoring a 5-4 victory over the Orlando Surge.

Then, during the postgame handshake, Bullfrog defenseman Chad Wagner allegedly punched Orlando’s Alex Alepin and broke his nose.

“That’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Bullfrog Coach Todd Gordon, who apologized to the Surge. “It’s the cheapest thing I’ve ever encountered.”

It marred an entertaining game, though the Bullfrogs failed to play with the “controlled emotion” Gordon had asked them to.

The Bullfrogs frittered away a 5-1 lead, largely because they committed eight penalties, five in the third quarter.

“The only way we lose is if we get in penalty trouble,” Gordon said. “Well, we got in penalty trouble.”

Bill Lund, the most valuable player, scored three times in the first 12 minutes 8 seconds.

THe Bullfrogs also got goals from Darren Perkins (one of two power-play goals) and Doug McCarthy; they led, 5-1, 6:59 into the second quarter.

But a cheap goal in the final minute, as goalkeeper Rob Laurie left the net, helped turn the momentum, which carried over to the third quarter.

“We were short-handed for six straight minutes, pretty much,” Perkins said.

But the Bullfrogs committed no penalties in the fourth quarter, and Laurie (21 saves and two assists) made some brilliant saves as his defense played more effectively and took advantage of its four-on-four status to actually mount an attack.

“It was Billy’s [Lund’s] night early and Rob’s night late,” Gordon said.

Last year, the Bullfrogs won the Roller Hockey International title. This is the third title in six years for owner Stuart Silver’s team.

The Bullfrogs outscored their two previous playoff opponents, 57-6. In defeating Orlando, the Bullfrogs (22-0-1) avenged the only blemish on their near-perfect season: a 9-8 shootout loss to Orlando in the last game of the season.

The Surge led the league in power-play proficiency (58.6% on the road, 57.4% overall) and scored five power-play goals against the Bullfrogs in its shootout victory.

That’s how the Surge scored its first goal Wednesday, by Jamie Cooke, 4:43 second into the game.

But that was a late start against Lund, who scored twice in the first 3:06, benefiting from precise passing from Tom Menicci to score 25 seconds into the game.

Lund scored a second time on a power-play goal and Perkins added a second consecutive power-play goal 3 1/2 minutes later for a 3-1 first quarter lead.

Lund scored eight seconds into the second quarter for a 4-1 lead, and McCarthy took a nice pass from Lund to make it 5-1 midway through the second quarter.

A four-on-two power play goal by Mike Martens followed by a 35-footer from the left circle by Alepin made it 5-4 going into the fourth quarter.

The Bullfrogs got a break early in the second quarter when the Surge’s third-leading scorer, Kyle Reeves (48 goals, 37 assists), was ejected for swinging his stick at Menicci.

Notes

With the victory came the Jason Cup, named annually for the player who represents the spirit of the game. This year’s cup was named for Jason Daniel Kostelnik of the Washington, D.C., area, a youth goalkeeper who died in 1997 shortly after a heart transplant. He was 15.