Seals Mania is about to blow the roof off venerable Pechanga Arena this Saturday night! Excitement will be brewing as soon as the doors open at 6 p.m. At 7 p.m., the Seals will take the turf and go to battle against the three-time reigning National Lacrosse League Champion Buffalo Bandits in a game that will have playoff implications for both teams. And as soon as the final whistle blows, players will head to the locker rooms and construction crews will take the field and assemble a wrestling ring at midfield and 20 of the most bad-ass pro wrestlers in the sport will take the field for a 20-man Royal Rumble that’ll be sure to put a surge in The Electric Factory.
Before we get to the Seals and Bandits, let’s break down Seals Mania, which will feature some of the top names in professional wrestling from Future Stars of Wrestling. The FSW wrestling card includes Danger Ross, Livewire Charlie, Mathias, Chris Masters, Hammerstone, Brian Cage, Tito Escondido and more than a dozen superstars of wrestling. And just yesterday it was announced that another superstar, WWE Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion The Miz will be in the house at The Electric Factory for an exclusive meet-and-greet.
Back to the Seals and Bandits, Saturday night’s game is a huge showdown in the NLL with the playoffs just weeks away. Currently with five games remaining, the Seals are 6-7 and they sit in eighth place in the League standings with Buffalo a game ahead at 7-6. Only the League’s top eight teams make the playoffs and Las Vegas and Rochester are both 5-7, just a half-game behind the Seals in that fight for the last playoff spots.
This game against the Bandits, especially with its playoff implications, is one that the Seals have had circled on their calendar. Last season, it was the Bandits that ended the Seals season with a 5-4 victory in the NLL quarterfinals in the lowest-scoring playoff game in League history.
And timing-wise, the Seals come into this weekend’s game with a bad taste in their mouth and they’ll look to take it out on the Bandits as they’ve lost three straight, including a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to League-leading Saskatchewan last Saturday night in Saskatoon. Buffalo meanwhile comes in on the opposite end of the spectrum having won their last three to get to 7-6 after starting their season just 4-6. To slow down the Bandits, the Seals will look to contain forward Dhane Smith, who’s tied for 11th in the League with a team-leading 29 goals while ranking third in the NLL this season with 88 total points.
The Seals will look to fill the net against Bandits goaltender Matt Vinc, who’s allowing 10.74 goals against this season, and the Seals have scored 9-or-more in all six of their wins. Seventeen (17) different players have scored goals for the Seals this season with forwards Tre Leclaire (27), Dylan Watson (19), Wes Berg (18) and Connor Robinson (18) leading the way. Berg comes into Saturday’s game with 299 career goals and needs just one more to reach 300. And Leclaire and Berg haven’t just been scoring, they’ve been helping too as they rank 1-2 on the squad in assists and total points. Leclaire has 28 assists for 55 total points and Berg’s right behind with a team-leading 36 assists for 54 points.
The Seals will also lean heavily on faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste and Zach Currier, two of the League’s top transition players. Baptiste leads the League in both faceoff wins (245) and faceoff win percentage (76%) and in all honesty, it’s not even close. Calgary’s Justin Inacio is second in faceoff wins (220), 25 behind Baptiste, while Halifax’s Jake Withers is second in faceoff win percentage (70%), a full six points behind the Seals’ faceoff dynamo.
And Currier, who just recorded his 1,500th career regular-season loose ball recovery last Saturday night in Saskatchewan, ranks second to Withers in loose balls secured (160 to 154) with Ottawa’s Callum Jones a distant third with 136, and he’s had 10-or-more in seven of the Seals’ last eight games. Currier’s also forced a team-leading 17 turnovers, one ahead of Danny Logan, who’s second with 14, and he’s second on the team with 9 blocked shots, three behind James Barclay, who paces the Seals’ defense with 12.
The Seals will also look to get a great effort in net from goaltender Chris Origlieri, who’s allowed nine-or-fewer goals in six of the team’s last nine games and whose 10.16 goals against average is fifth-lowest among netminders who’ve played 650-or-more minutes this season. Origlieri comes into Saturday night’s contest with 1,995 career saves and will likely eclipse 2,000 saves during the contest.
Seals Head-to-Head vs. Buffalo
Including playoffs, Buffalo is 6-1 all-time against the Seals and 3-0 in games played inside Pechanga Arena.
Last season, the teams split a pair of regular-season meetings with each team winning on the other’s home floor. The Seals beat the Bandits 14-13 in overtime at the KeyBank Center on Feb. 15 and a week later, the Bandits returned the favor, downing the Seals 13-12 at Pechanga Arena.
Broadcast Information
For those unable to make to Pechanga Arena on Saturday night, the game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on Spectrum Cable Channel 4 and streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.
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