The San Diego Seals, fresh off their first win in 48 days, will now head to the “City of Brotherly Love” for the front end of a home-and-home against the Philadelphia Wings this Friday night (Jan. 23) at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Faceoff is 4 p.m. PT and the game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on Spectrum Cable Channel 4 and streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.
The teams will meet again in San Diego a week from this Friday (Jan. 30).
The Seals, who are 2-0 on the road this season, come in looking to ride the wave of last Friday night’s 11-9 win in Vancouver over the previously 3-1 Warriors. The win ended Vancouver’s three-game winning steak and halted the Seals’ own three-game skid. The Seals got a tremendous effort from their defense and goaltender Chris Origlieri, who stopped 41 of the 50 shots that he faced, and held off a furious Vancouver comeback late in the contest. Tre Leclaire, Pat Kavanagh, Dylan Watson and Zach Currier all each scored twice for the Seals in the win, while Trevor Baptiste continued his dominance in the faceoff circle, winning 19 of the game’s 24 faceoffs.
Philadelphia comes into Friday’s contest just 1-4. They beat Colorado 8-7 in their season opener on Dec. 13, but they’ve lost their last four, falling to Rochester twice and Ottawa and Las Vegas once. During the current four-game skid, they’ve been outscored 54-43.
Thirteen different players have scored goals for the Seals this season, led by forwards Tre Leclaire (13), Wes Berg (7) and Dylan Watson (6). And the Seals have given themselves plenty of opportunities to score this season as Baptiste leads the NLL in both faceoff win percentage (85%) and faceoff wins (116). Defensively, transition specialist Zach Currier leads the Seals with 56 loose balls secured and seven forced turnovers, while defensemen Danny Logan and Matt Wright are just one off the pace with six takeaways apiece.
Regular-Season Milestones on the Horizon
Wes Berg (288 career goals) needs 12 more to reach 300 for his career.
Berg (698 career points) needs 2 more to reach 700 for his career.
Berg (684 career loose ball recoveries) needs just 16 more to reach 700 for his career.
Eli Gobrecht has 89 career forced turnovers and needs just 11 more to reach 100.
Corey Small has scored 955 career points on 421 career goals and 534 career assists. He needs 45 more points to reach 1,000. He ranks 19th all-time in NLL annals in points scored
Zach Currier has 186 career points on 66 goals and 120 assists. He needs 14 more to reach 200.
Ben McIntosh has scored 336 career goals and needs 14 more to reach 350 for his career.
Connor Robinson has 284 career points on 127 goals and 157 assists. He need just 16 more points to reach 300 for his career.
Seals-Wings Head-to-Head
This will be the fifth all-time regular season meeting between the Seals and Wings and the Seals hold a 3-1 series edge. This will be just the second time the teams have met in Philadelphia. San Diego won the lone previous meeting (12-11) during the 2023-24 season. The Seals are 2-1 in regular season meetings in San Diego. The teams also met once in the postseason in the first round of the 2021-22 NLL Playoffs, a game won by the Seals, 9-8, at Pechanga Arena.
A Look Back at Last Season’s Contest
In a high-scoring affair that featured 33 combined goals, the Seals bounced back from an early 5-1 deficit to knock off the Wings, 18-15, in their 2024-25 National Lacrosse League opener at Pechanga Arena.
It was a fast and furious first quarter that saw the Seals and Wings combine for 12 goals as Philadelphia staked out to an 8-4 lead. San Diego struck first before the Wings went on a five-goal run. Zach Currier and Ben McIntosh each scored their first goals as Seals during the opening quarter.
The second period was all Seals as they outscored the Wings 7-1, including four power play goals, to go ahead 11-9 at the break. Wes Berg and Ben McIntosh were among the Seals’ second-quarter goal scorers.
The teams combined for seven goals in the third period with San Diego outscoring the Wings 4-3 to stretch their lead to 15-12. One of the goals was scored by Eli Gobrecht on a runout after a long pass from goaltender Chris Origlieri. There was a pivotal moment late in the third period when the Seals were hit with a five-minute major penalty for high-sticking, but the they put up a wall on defense and held the Wings scoreless while Tre Leclaire scored a shorthanded goal 51 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The Seals would go on to play the Wings even in the fourth period with both teams scoring three goals apiece. Among the Seals goals was the fourth of the night by McIntosh.
Roster Breakdown
The Seals’ current 21-man regular season roster sees the team carrying eight forwards, seven defenders, four transition men and two goalies. The breakdown is below:
Forwards: Wes Berg, Ben McIntosh, Jake Govett, Tre Leclaire, Pat Kavanagh, Dylan Watson, Connor Robinson, Corey Small, and Noah Armitage.
Defensemen: Danny Logan, Kellen Leclair, Graydon Bradley, Eli Gobrecht, Matt Wright, Patrick Shoemay, James Barclay and Zack Deaken.
Transition: Zach Currier, Trent DiCicco, faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste and rookie Ari Steenhuis.
Goaltenders: Chris Origlieri and Cam Dunkerley, Tyden Redlick.
Kellen Leclair, Small and McIntosh are currently on Injured-Reserve, as is transition man Cam Acchione who started the season on the Injured-Reserve list. Also, forward Chris Kavanagh is on the Physically Unable to Perform list. All players are expected to return, though there is no timeline for when that will take place.
Team Captains
Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill announced the team’s 2025-26 Team Captains going into the season as voted on by the players.
Wes Berg will serve as team captain for the third straight season. Danny Logan and Graydon Bradley have been selected as assistant captains for home games, while Zach Currier and Eli Gobrecht have been tabbed as assistant captains for the team’s road contests.
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