In a rare interleague matchup between the top teams in each division, the San Diego Seals dropped a heartbreaking loss to the Buffalo Bandits in a 7-6 overtime affair at Pechanga Arena.
“It stings a bit because I felt we played well enough to win,” head coach Patrick Merrill said.
Austin Staats scored twice for his third straight multi-goal effort. The first one, which gave the Seals an early lead in the second quarter, marked the 100th goal of his NLL career. The second score came on a dive from behind the net that, at the time, put the Seals back up by one in the third quarter.
NBA style slam dunk from Staats pic.twitter.com/7X5vN4cuQy
— San Diego Seals (@SealsLax) March 26, 2023
22-year-old forward Jacob Dunbar netted his first goal of the season in the second quarter. He was selected in the first round of the 2021 NLL Entry Draft by the Seals.
Curtis Dickson put the Seals on the board in the second quarter and Mac O’Keefe and Dane Dobbie scored one goal each in the third quarter to keep the San Diego lead.
Buffalo’s Chris Cloutier tied the game at six goals apiece in the middle of the fourth quarter.
While the Seals had the ball late in the fourth quarter, a Buffalo player shoved Seals’ forward Wesley Aberg who in turn ran into another Buffalo player, knocking him to the ground. The referees appeared to only see Berg running into the fallen Bandits defender because they called a penalty on Berg, sending him to the penalty box despite his pleading with the refs and pointing up at the video board while the replay clearly showed he was pushed against his will.
The Buffalo power play didn’t turn out to do anything aside from give them a man advantage for two minutes where the Seals offense was reluctant to go on the attack and leaving their defensive end wide open for a potential go-ahead score from the Bandits power play team.
Bandits defenseman Steve Priolo would score the game-winning goal almost six minutes into the overtime period with his third goal of the season.
“You have to keep focus on the task at hand and try to stay in the moment. Obviously for me, as a coach, when I see our guys paying a price and working their tails off out there and I see calls go in a way that I didn’t think were in our favor, that’s frustrating. But at the end of the day, you have to play through that. It’s sports, right? And you have to respect the job the officials are doing and move on,” Merrill said.
The first and fourth quarters were just the second and third times this season the Seals were held scoreless for an entire quarter. Funnily enough, the Seals followed the first quarter by holding Buffalo scoreless in the second quarter, shutting out an opponent for an entire quarter for just the second time this season.
This game was the Seals’ (10-3) third loss all season, their second at home, and they still hold the second-best overall record in the NLL, only behind the Bandits (11-3).
San Diego has all but clinched a playoff spot with a combination of two San Diego wins and Colorado Mammoth losses or two San Diego wins and two Philadelphia Wings losses. The Seals and Mammoth have five games to go with the Wings having four games remaining.
Fresh off their performance Saturday night after having played in Fort Worth, Texas, the night before, San Diego will host the second-place Calgary Roughnecks next week who are a half-game behind the Seals in the West Division.
“They’re really close to us in the standings and having to prepare for them starts tomorrow but they’re a really, really strong transition team, they’ve got a great goaltender, so we have to be at our best,” Merrill said.