The Seals pitched a first-quarter shutout on their way to taking a 2-0 lead and they did it by unconventional means. Down a man just 50 seconds into the contest after Graydon Bradley was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking, the Seals scored a pair of short-handed goals 1:50 apart. The first off the stick of Connor, Robinson off a beautiful pass from Wes Berg and the second by Pat Kavanagh the latter of which was assisted on the defensive end by goaltender Chris Origlieri and Patrick Shoemay.
Each team scored a pair of goals in the second quarter as San Diego took a 4–2 lead into the locker room at halftime. Vancouver finally cracked the scoreboard 34 seconds into the quarter when Steph Charbonneau scored on a delayed penalty, but the Seals got to got a goal back at the 8:35 mark when Berg scored from point-blank range off a pass from Kavanagh. Vancouver’s Keegan Bal scored a power-play goal at the eight minute mark to get Vancouver within a goal at 3–2, but just 1:32 later, Pechanga Arena erupted into the Electric Factory when rookie Marquez White, who was making his NLL debut on Sunday afternoon, scooped up a loose ball and took it the length of the field and beat Warrior’s netminder Christian Del Bianco for his first-ever NLL goal.
Vancouver outscored the Seals 3-2 in the third to get within a goal. Special teams were on display for both teams early in the quarter. Vancouver struck first, scoring a shorthanded goal during a 4-on-3 power play, but just 28 seconds later after starting the game 0-for-5 on the power-play, Berg finally got the Seals on the board a man up, powering one home, assisted by Robinson and Tre Leclaire. The teams would trade goals again later in the quarter with Bal scoring his second of the afternoon for Vancouver at the 5:39 mark before Zach Currier slammed one home 33 seconds later to put the Seals back up by a pair at 6–4. Adam Charalambides scored the last goal of the quarter for the Warriors at 3:19 to get them back within one.
Vancouver erased the deficit early in the fourth, tying it 6–6 before scoring three more unanswered goals to take control and build a 9–6 lead. The Warriors rattled off four straight in the quarter, flipping the momentum late. Noah Armitage broke the drought with two minutes remaining to cut it to 9–7, but the Seals couldn’t complete the comeback. San Diego heads into a BYE next weekend, returns to the road March 14 in Saskatchewan, and is back home March 21 for Seals Mania Night.
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