Seals head to Saskatchewan in search of win No. 13
The 12-4 San Diego Seals, fresh off a thrilling come-from-behind 14-10 win over the Panther City Lacrosse Club last Friday night at Pechanga Arena, will head to Central Canada this weekend to take on the 7-9 Saskatchewan Rush on Saturday night (April 13) at the Sasktel Centre. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. PT.
At 12-4, the Seals own the National Lacrosse League’s second-best record, a game behind 13-3 Toronto. Currently, the Seals sit as the No. 2 seed in the NLL playoffs, which are set to begin in San Diego on April 27. With just two games remaining, the Seals would need to win their last two games against Saskatchewan and Vancouver and have Toronto drop their final two games against Rochester and Saskatchewan to claim the No. 1 seed heading into the postseason. The Seals are already guaranteed of being at least the No. 2 seed which ensures that they would have home field advantage through the semifinal round of the playoffs.
The Seals come into Saturday night’s game having won four straight and six of their last seven. Saskatchewan won its last game against Calgary, 12-9, and has won two of its last three. All-time, the Seals and Rush have met 10 times and the series is tied, 5-5. The series is also tied 2-2 in games played at the Sasktel Centre, though the Seals won the last meeting there, 12-11, last season. And it’s not just the series that’s been tight as five of the 10 games played between the Seals and Rush have been decided by one goal.
Broadcast Information: Saturday night’s game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on KUSI-TV and streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.
Players to Watch
· Austin Staats has scored a team-record 47 goals this season.
· Staats is third in the League goals this season, just one behind Buffalo’s Josh Byrne (48) and four behind League leader Jeff Teat from New York (51). Combined with 45 assists, Staats has 92 points on the season, 11th-most in the League. Staats’ 212 shots on goal are second in the NLL.
· Wes Berg’s 96 points are tied for sixth-most in the NLL. Berg’s 59 assists lead the team and are tied for seventh in the NLL, while his 37 goals are second on the team and tied for 13th in the League.
·Trevor Baptiste, the renowned faceoff specialist, is second in the League in faceoff wins with a team-record 291. Baptiste scored his first two goals of the season, both off faceoff wins, in last Saturday night’s win over Panther City. His 72% faceoff win percentage is second-best in the League among players with at least 225 faceoffs and Baptiste’s 167 loose balls secured ranks 3rd in the NLL.
·Last week against Panther City, Baptiste become the 10th player in NLL history to surpass 1,500 career faceoff wins and he broke Cam Holding’s team record for single-season loose ball wins.
·Goalkeeper Chris Origlieri has the National Lacrosse League’s second-lowest goals against average (9.58) among starting netminders. He’s played the third-most minutes in the League (964:49), he owns the NLL’s third-highest save percentage among starters (80%) and he’s eighth in the League with 603 saves on the season. “Rigs’” 12 wins as the team’s starting goaltender are a team record.
· Defenseman Kyle Rubisch leads the Seals and is 7th in the NLL this season with a team-record 26 takeaways.
· Dane Dobbie is six assists shy of reaching 600 for his career.
· Patrick Shoemay is seven loose ball recoveries away from 300 for his career.
· Jesse Gamble needs four points to reach 100 for his career.
· Seals forward Curtis Dickson (527 career goals) needs two goals to pass Colin Doyle (528) for seventh on the National Lacrosse League’s all-time list. Already this season, Dickson became the NLL’s 16th player to reach 1,000 career points.
· Kyle Jackson needs two points to reach 300 for his career and seven loose ball recoveries to reach 400.
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