The Seals’ hero: Dane Dobbie.
In a game where neither team could get a two-goal lead, Dobbie put the Seals on top 9-8 in an all-time NLL postseason classic with his sudden-death overtime winner.
The game-winner was the 80th goal in 35 games in his playoff career.
“Big game players make big plays in big times and it was huge there for [Dobbie] to get us that overtime winner,” Patrick Merrill said. “He’s the type of player that’s built for April and May. He’s been doing it his whole career, will eventually be a hall of famer, but he’s a winner and such an inspirational leader for us and was that again for us tonight.”
“This is where you come to play. This is what we’re here to do. We’re here to try and win championships and we got to play hard in the playoffs and you got to up your game and every game we want 5% more and we just got to chip away,” Dobbie said.
At 2:45 into the overtime period, Curtis Dickson passed behind himself to Wesley Berg where he found Dobbie to his right. Dobbie shot around Panther City defenseman Liam Patten who was covering him and found the opening to the right of former Seals goalie Nick Damude.
“I had a good shot to start and then I had another shot off the rebound that I had picked up the rebound, should’ve scored there, and came around the net and Chris Wardle was setting lots of picks to get me open and, you know, I think I just shot off a swing and it went far side piping in.”
Dane Dobbie scored the game’s first goal and both teams alternated for the first eight goals of the game before Panther City broke away for a 5-4 lead in the second quarter.
The Seals worked their way back as Dobbie scored with 2.5 seconds left on the clock in the second quarter to tie the game and Austin Staats opened the second-half scoring with a go-ahead score for a hat trick.
Both teams scored just one goal in each of the third and fourth quarters as both defenses took over the game.
“That’s kind of the way this league is in the playoffs. Every team is so good and anyone can win on any given night and we were just one shot better than them tonight,” Merrill said.
“It’s the playoffs, you have to find ways to win,” Staats said.
“It doesn’t matter who scores it, as long as we get it and they don’t,” Dobbie said.
MORE FROM PECHANGA ARENA
• Staats had his face mask knocked off his head by Panther City captain Matthew Hossack, but Staats kept going and scored the go-ahead goal to give the Seals a 4-3 lead. It fired him up.
“Just never giving up on a play,” Staats said of that play in particular.
When asked whether scoring that goal in that situation fired him up, his response: “For sure. I mean, hopefully it fired everyone up. It’s a pretty big goal and pretty big goal in the way that I scored it.”
• Trevor Baptiste, in his first playoff game with the Seals, went 19-for-21 on the faceoff and became the new San Diego leader in playoff faceoff wins. He passed Brandon Clelland (18), Eli Gobrecht (17) and Danny Logan (16).
“[Baptiste] controlled the game, … dominated on the faceoffs as he usually does, and he played actually amazing defense, too, for us down the stretch. Trevor just did what he did and gave us some time to have possession and keep our defense off the floor as long as possible, and I felt that was huge for us down the stretch,” Merrill said.
During the first half, Panther City went with four defenders on their side of the field during faceoffs and nobody behind Baptiste, which only made it easier for the best faceoff player in the NLL.
“That’s just honestly respect to Trevor, right?” Merrill asked in reply. “They just played conservative and just set up on defense, basically, knowing that he was going to win the faceoff.”
More Seals playoff career records: Staats maintained his goals lead with 17 playoff goals in six games. Dobbie follows him with 15. Dobbie extended his lead in the points leaderboard with 31. Staats follows him with 28 and Berg at 26. Berg tied Jeremy Noble for the assists lead with 17. Dobbie trails him by one for third on the leaderboard.
• Drew Belgrave and Brodie Merrill became the only players to appear in every playoff game in Seals’ history, playing in their seventh with San Diego. Longtime goalie Frank Scigliano was the only other Seal to play in every playoff game before Saturday night.
• Cam Holding’s first-quarter goal that gave the Seals a 2-1 lead at the time was the second playoff goal of his career and his first since on May 3, 2014, when he played for the Colorado Mammoth. He scored three goals in 12 games during the regular season.
UP NEXT
The Seals move on to the semifinals to play the winner of the No. 3 Albany Firewolves and No. 6 Halifax Thunderbirds matchup tomorrow, April 28, at 12 p.m. PT.
The semifinals will begin for the Seals on either Friday, May 3 in San Diego or Saturday, May 4 in Halifax depending on who wins the final quarterfinal matchup on Sunday afternoon.