The San Diego Seals were back on their home floor at Pechanga Arena Friday night preparing for a crucial West Conference matchup. San Diego sat in first place and they welcomed the second place Calgary Roughnecks to town. This game had massive implications for standings and also for clinching playoff berths.
The Seals wasted little time getting out in front. Curtis Dickson, Dane Dobbie and Frank Scigliano all had huge games against their former club, as San Diego clinched their spot in this year’s playoffs by beating Calgary 14-8. To the action we go.
Dickson opened up the scoring as he walked right in on Christan Del Bianco and beat him five-hole. Dobbie tallied the next one for the Seals with a low snipe on the power play. Wesley Berg got his first shortly thereafter to continue the San Diego momentum, or so they thought. Calgary rattled off two straight to cut the deficit, one from Jesse King and the other from Zach Currier. The Seals tallied the last two goals of the quarter, the first from Kevin Crowley on the power play and the other from Dickson, his second, a shorthanded goal. A shorty from Dickson? No, couldn’t be! 5-2 Seals after one. It was a good sign that San Diego was spreading the wealth quite successfully on offense.
San Diego outscored Calgary again in the second, which only buried the Riggers even more. The first goal of the frame was by one of the more unlikely Seals players in Brodie Merrill. It was only his second goal of the season, both of which were scored against Calgary. That goal was at the 14:49 mark, the next one wasn’t until 4:51, courtesy of Jake Govett. Calgary’s only goal of the quarter came from Tanner Cook on the power play as he sniped right around a defender. After a crazy sequence at the end of the second, San Diego found themselves on a four-on-three. Dobbie drew another penalty, which resulted in a penalty shot. Staats took the shot, and after about a million head-fakes, buried it. 8-3 Seals going into the half.
The back-and-forth of this contest was through the roof. Both teams use fast transition to their advantage, so both goaltenders had their work cut out for them. Del Bianco seemed like he couldn’t get into a rhythm and San Diego had quite a few man-advantage situations. CBD made quite a few saves, but still saw his team on the losing side so far. On the other side, Scigliano was phenomenal making timely save after timely save. He made 16 saves on 19 shots.
“Thank God the coach gave it to me,” said Staats jokingly about the penalty shot. “I took what he gave me and found the back of the net. We just have to keep moving our feet and moving the ball. We can’t let them get back in this game with transition and running the floor on us.”
Calgary tried to get the comeback train started to begin the third quarter. Kyle Waters and Josh Currier each got their first of the game to stop the San Diego momentum, but only for a short while. Dobbie got his second and Eli Gobrecht got his first to erase the Roughnecks’ run. King got his second to end the third on the power play, to put us at 10-6 San Diego going into the final frame.
Calgary just couldn’t get close enough to mount a decent comeback. Waters got his second of the game to open the fourth, but San Diego answered with a three-goal run. Scorers in that run were Staats, his second, Berg, his second, and Dickson, giving him his hat trick. Shane Simpson got his first for the Riggers, but that too, was erased by Dobbie’s hat trick goal. That’d be all she wrote. Your final from the 619, 14-8 Seals.
With that win, San Diego clinched a berth in this year’s playoffs. As for Calgary, yes this loss was a bit brutal, but they too, clinched a playoff berth with Las Vegas losing their game.
Players of the game for Calgary were King (2+1), Waters (2+1), and Cook (1+1). Del Bianco had a very rare off night. He made 35 saves on 49 shots. For San Diego, Dobbie (3+2), Dickson (3+1), and Berg (2+6) led the way. Crowley tossed in a season-high six points as well. Scigliano was brilliant, keeping Calgary at an arm’s length all game. Frank made 32 saves on 40 shots.
“It’s always good to score shorthanded,” said Berg about San Diego’s five shorties in this game. “The defense and Frankie played awesome. We love playing in front of our fans, it’s a great feeling for us.”
San Diego (11-3) put all worry to bed as they clinched a playoff berth. Obviously they want to continue their hot play in order to maintain the first seed in the West Conference. They pack up and leave to take on Las Vegas (5-9) this Saturday at 10:30 p.m. in another huge matchup in the West. As for Calgary (10-5), they too, have clinched a playoff berth. They head back home to take on the team nipping at their heels in Panther City Lacrosse Club (8-6). That contest also is this Saturday at 9 p.m. The March to May is upon us, buckle up.
