Seals look to secure a home playoff game when they host Panther City Lacrosse Club on Stick Up For A Cure Night, presented by Rady Children’s Hospital
The San Diego Seals, 11-4 and owning the National Lacrosse League’s second-best record, will look to secure a first-round home playoff game when they host the Panther City Lacrosse Club at 7 p.m. PT on Friday night at Pechanga Arena. The Seals officially clinched a spot in the 2024 NLL Playoffs with a 10-9 overtime win against Las Vegas on March 23.
Tickets to Friday night’s game against Panther City are available here.
Friday is Stick Up For A Cure Night, presented by Rady Children’s Hospital, at Pechanga Arena. It’s the team’s annual Cancer Awareness Night contest. As part of the team’s partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, players will wear custom jerseys featuring the names of individuals who have been impacted by cancer. Proceeds from Stick Up For A Cure will benefit the Peckham Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Rady Children’s.
The Seals are one of the NLL’s hottest teams as they’ve won three straight and five of their last six. They trail NLL leader Toronto (12-3) by one game. With a victory on Friday night, the Seals will assure themselves of hosting a first-round playoff game.
Panther City has won two of its last three and comes in at 7-7. It’s their second meeting of the season with the Seals. On March 1, Austin Staats’ goal on a beautiful behind-the-back pass from Dane Dobbie 3:22 into overtime gave the Seals a 10-9 win over Panther City at the Dickies Arena in Ft. Worth.
All-time, the Seals are 5-1 against Panther City and in the series, the Seals have outscored Panther City by a total of 74-55.
Broadcast Information: Friday night’s game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on KUSI-TV and streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.
Players to Watch
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.
Austin Staats has 43 goals on the season and needs just three more to set a new team record. The current team mark of 45 is held by Dane Dobbie.
Staats is third in the League goals this season, just two behind Buffalo’s Josh Byrne (45) and four behind League leader Jeff Teat from New York (47). Combined with 44 assists, Staats has 87 points on the season, seventh-most in the League. Staats’ 198 shots on goal is second in the NLL.
Wes Berg’s 90 points are sixth-most in the NLL. Berg’s 56 assists lead the team and are tied for sixth in the NLL, while his 34 goals are second on the team and tied for 11th in the League.
Trevor Baptiste, the renowned faceoff specialist, is third in the League in faceoff wins with a team-record 266. His 70% faceoff win percentage is fourth-best in the League among players with at least 225 faceoffs and Baptiste’s 147 loose balls secured is 3rd in the NLL.
Baptiste also has a couple of milestones within sight. He needs 13 more faceoff wins to become the 10th player in NLL history with 1,500 during their career and he needs just one loose ball recovery to reach 900 for his career. He also needs 11 loose balls to break Cam Holding’s team record of 157 set during the 2018-19 season.
Goalkeeper Chris Origlieri has the National Lacrosse League’s second-lowest goals against average (9.55) among starting netminders. He’s also played more minutes (904:49) than any other goalie in the League this season. “Rigs” owns the NLL’s top save percentage among starters (80%) and he’s fourth in the League with 568 saves on the season. His 11 wins as the team’s starting goaltender are a team record.
Defenseman Kyle Rubisch leads the Seals and is tied for 7th in the NLL this season with a team-record 25 takeaways.
Dane Dobbie is seven assists shy of reaching 600 for his career.
Kyle Jackson needs two points to reach 300 for his career and seven loose ball recoveries to reach 400.
Patrick Shoemay is nine loose ball recoveries away from 300 for his career.
Jesse Gamble needs four points to reach 100 for his career.
Head Coach Patrick Merrill: Patrick Merrill is looking to guide the Seals to a fourth-consecutive playoff appearance in 2023-24. With a regular-season won-loss ledger of 51-30 (.630) since joining the Seals in 2018, Merrill’s guided the team to the playoffs in each of the three full seasons he’s been at the helm, including a berth in the 2022 West Conference Finals.
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