Bulls fall in doomsday heart­breaker

Oh wait. I think I just did.

On to more important business, like tonight’s heartbreaker hockey matchup between the San Francisco Bulls and the visiting Ontario Reign. Sadly, the ache was on the side of the home team, who fell to the Reign 3-1.

President and Head Coach Pat Curcio said after the game:

“It was a frustrating game, a frustrating loss. … It’s hard to always be trying to come back. We did the same thing Monday, we did the same thing before in Ontario. You’ve got to get out to a lead and you’ve got to keep your foot on the gas. You keep chasing from behind, sooner or later it’s going to come back to haunt you.”

Not that the Bulls didn’t play competitively. They outshot the Reign 30-21 and wowed the crowd of 2,982 fans up until the last second of play. But at the end of the day, Curcio said:

“I guess we can always look at the positives, but we need to win games. We just aren’t winning enough.”

The Bulls would be the first to go on the power play, but the Reign would get the first goal, with a close shot by left wing Colton Yellow Horn to give the visitors the 1-0 advantage. Dan DaSilva and Kyle Kraemer would pick up assists.

Srong defense on San Francisco’s behalf would keep the deficit from increasing. Both teams would retire to their locker rooms at the first intermission with the score at 1-0, with the Bulls outshooting the Reign 13-11.

The only goal scored during the second period would be in favor of the Reign, as forward Mario Lamoureux increased Ontario’s lead to 2-0, assisted by Everett Sheen and Jason Beeman. The Bulls would continue to outshoot the opposition but wouldn’t capitalize on it.

San Francisco finally got its first goal at 4:46 in the third period courtesy of Marek Viedensky, assisted by Mikael Tam and Dean Ouellet. Not long after the Bulls brought the score to 2-1, Viedensky would fall to the ice after sustaining a hit to the ankle. He was carried out of the rink; no word yet on his condition.

It would look as though the Bulls would tie the game up with less than a minute left to play. But after a called “no-goal” on San Francisco, Ontario’s Yellow Horn would put the puck in the unguarded net with a second left in regulation.

The Bulls hit the road to play Ontario Saturday night, after which the team will be off for the Christmas holiday. They will return to the Cow Palace Friday December 28 to face the Las Vegas Wranglers. The puck drops at 7:15 p.m.