For the second straight season, the San Diego Seals are the National Lacrosse League’s West Division champion following their dominating 14-4 lead over the Las Vegas Desert Dogs.
“I thought we played a great way all night long. It was something definitely that we talked about is with these last couple games, not only are they meaningful for us to clinch the West but also forming good habits going into the playoffs,” head coach Patrick Merrill said.
The team was firing on all cylinders with their largest margin of victory all season. Dane Dobbie and Austin Staats scored hat tricks with three goals in the 10-goal victory. Wesley Berg and Mac O’Keefe turned in multi-goal efforts. Curtis Dickson, Jake Govett, Danny Logan, and Patrick Shoemay also scored goals in the game.
Dickson’s first-quarter goal was the 500th of his 11-year NLL career.
On defense, they gave up the second-fewest goals by any team in NLL play in a single game all season. Goaltender Frank Scigliano made 28 saves and four goals allowed in 51:21 of play while Chris Origlieri entered the game for the final 8:39, making eight additional saves.
A big piece to the Seals’ offensive outburst, despite not being named one of the stars of the game, was Wesley Berg’s two-goal, seven-point effort in his 100th career NLL game.
“Honestly I think Wesley Berg should be considered for MVP of this league, and that’s just what Wes does. He’s so important in so many different ways. For him to start heating up production-wise, point-wise, it’s nice to see just because he earns it and he works so hard for it,” Merrill said.
On Dane Dobbie’s first-quarter goal, Berg became the first player in Seals' history to record 100 points in a single season. His two goals also surpassed his single-season high for goals in a season, scoring his 37th and 38th goals of the season.
With teammates like Dane Dobbie, Curtis Dickson, and Austin Staats, it may be easy for Berg to be overlooked by the opposing defense, which has allowed Berg to put up the numbers he has this season.
UP NEXT:
The Seals will finish the 2022-23 NLL regular season with the Colorado Mammoth next Saturday, April 29, at Pechanga Arena after they wrapped the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage through Western Division Finals.