In the team’s biggest game of the year, the San Diego Seals turned in their best performance of the season in a 14-8 rout of the second-place Calgary Roughnecks.
“Both teams are really good on special teams and that’s the game, right?” head coach Patrick Merrill said.
The big story of the game was the penalties, which Patrick Merrill said did not play a huge role in the game. Instead, it was the defense and special teams that played the largest role. The Seals had 18 penalty minutes compared to the Roughnecks’ 14, but two power play goals and five shorthanded scores for the home team were the difference in the game.
“Some gutsy efforts out of those guys to get to the net with guys draped all over them and huge lift for our defense having to defend shorthanded when our offense puts those goals in,” Merrill said.
The defense saw a huge boost from their offensive counterparts on the penalty kill with the showering of shorthanded goals.
“It’s getting better. We’re starting to come along there. I think it’s just a little bit more continuity and coaches have a good plan for us and really being kind of lock step with Franky in net as well and I always think your best penalty killers are goalie,” captain Brodie Merrill said.
Curtis Dickson got the scoring started in the opening two minutes. Another minute later, Dane Dobbie netted his first of what would become three goals in another hat-trick performance for the former Roughneck.
Wesley Berg, another player familiar with Calgary, netted the game’s third goal.
The closest the Roughnecks came to tying the game came in the middle of the first quarter when Calgary’s Jesse King and Zach Currier found the net behind Seals’ goaltender Frank Scigliano. But Kevin Crowley and Dickson scored back-to-back within a minute of each other to take an early 5-2 lead.
The Seals would finish the first half with seven different goal scorers when defenseman Brodie Merrill, Jake Govett, and Austin Staats found their first goals of the night.
San Diego never looked back from their five-goal halftime lead. In the second half, Calgary would only manage to come within three goals after that at 8-5. Defenseman Eli Gobrecht joined Merrill with his second goal of the season in the third quarter. The final frame saw Dobbie and Dickson record hat tricks while Staats and Berg each added another multi-goal outings to their season resume.
“We’ve been chasing some complete games throughout the year and then this one was one of our best for sure, overall. It’s good to see we’re starting to find ourselves and play our best lacrosse at the right time,” Brodie said.
With playoffs clinched, the Seals enter a two-game road trip to Las Vegas and Denver as they look to win the West division. They will return home to Pechanga Arena for the final two games of the regular season on Apr. 22 and 29 against the Las Vegas Desert Dogs and Colorado Mammoth.