The San Diego Seals got their 5th season underway in style at Pechanga Arena on Saturday night. Poison front-man Bret Michaels and former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees were in the building to watch the Seals take on the visiting Calgary Roughnecks. Led by a four-goal performance from Austin Staats, the home team earned a hard fought 12-9 victory.
The 2023/24 edition of the San Diego Seals featured some key off-season additions including face-off whiz Trevor Baptiste and defensive rock Kyle Rubisch. The departure of veteran goaltender Frank Scigliano also signaled a changing of the guard between the pipes for the Seals with youngster Chris Origlieri getting the nod for the #1 job. If last night’s game was any indication, then Steve Govett and Patrick Merrill received an A+ for their off-season work.
The Calgary Roughnecks flew into San Diego having already opened their season last week suffering a 14-13 loss to Rochester. The Roughnecks defense took some heat in the media and were looking to respond. Coach Josh Sanderson inserted first-round pick Bennett Smith into the lineup in place of Justin Inacio and then moved Zach Currier up to the face-off dot to counteract Trevor Baptiste.
The visitors got off to a hot start taking a 3-1 first quarter lead on goals from Haiden Dickson, Jesse King and Shane Simpson. Some spectacular goaltending from Christian Del Bianco limited the Seals to just one marker from Austin Staats. Tight defensive play and good goaltending continued into the second quarter with Calgary adding one goal from Tyler Pace and San Diego getting another goal from Austin Staats and one from Tre Leclaire. At the half, Calgary held a slim 4-3 lead.
During the halftime break, San Diego honoured Brodie Merrill with a special jersey retirement ceremony. Merrill’s #17 marked the first every jersey retired by the Seals organization and paid tribute to arguably the greatest defensive player to have ever played in the NLL.
When the game resumed, both teams hit the turf running. Calgary struck first with goals from Pace and Simpson. Veteran Curtis Dickson replied with his first of the season making the score 6-4. A five-minute illegal cross-checking penalty by Tre Leclaire at 9:50 of the third marked the turning point of the game. Faced with the possibility of surrendering one or two goals, the Seals rallied and Austin Staats scored twice to draw the game even. On the first, he slung a shot that hit Calgary defender Seth Van Schepen square in the face mask. Staats calmly picked the ball up and fired again beating Del Bianco with a far side bouncer. Two and a half minutes later, Staats unloaded a cannon from the restraining line the found the top corner. By the end of the third, both teams had combined for 11 goals and the score was dead even at 9-9.
The fourth quarter belonged entirely to the hometown Seals. Calgary killers Wes Berg and Dane Dobbie went to work and combined for three goals while the Seal defense and Chris Origlieri shut the door the rest of the way surrendering no goals.
Austin Staats and Curtis Dickson ended the game with six points apiece. Dane Dobbie and Wes Berg each added four points and a revitalized Tre Leclaire had two goals and an assist. Trevor Baptiste won 20 of 27 face-offs, while Kyle Rubisch scooped seven loosies and caused two turnovers. O-Rig, (Chris Origlieri), stopped 34 of 43 shots good for a 0.790 save percentage.
A bright spot for Calgary was the play of Tyler Pace who scored four goals and added an assist. Captain Jesse King led all Calgary scorers with six assists and a goal. On the back end, Zach Currier had 11 looseball recoveries and caused two turnovers.
Looking ahead to Week 3 in the NLL, the Seals will travel to Buffalo to take on the defending Champs on Saturday, December 16th. The Roughnecks won’t see action till after Christmas with their home opener against the Las Vegas Desert Dogs on December 30th.
