Seals rally valiantly from early deficit but fall short in Toronto

The Seals dug themselves an early 5-1 hole and fought back valiantly on Saturday night at the TD Coliseum in Toronto, but the Rock were just a tad better than the Seals as they held them off and prevailed 7-5. Wes Berg scored twice for the Seals to pace the offense. Chris Origlieri was solid in net, stopping 21 of 28 Rock shots, but they ran into a hot Toronto goaltender in Nick Rose, who stopped 38 of the Seals’ 43 shots on the night.

The Seals unfortunately found themselves playing from behind the entire night after Toronto jumped out to a 3-0 first quarter lead. They stretched the lead to 4-0 early in the fourth before Connor Robinson got the Seals on the board with a goal that was assisted by Berg and Ben McIntosh. Toronto’s Owen Hiltz scored his second of the quarter to put the Rock back up 5-1 just 43 seconds later before Berg scored his first of the night with 3:21 left and the teams went to the locker room at halftime with the Rock up 5-2.

Just under six minutes into the third, the Seals got back within two when Zack Deaken made a fantastic defensive play, swiping the ball from Hiltz and taking the loose ball the length of the field and scoring on a breakaway against Rose. Unfortunately though, that would be the only shot that would find the back of the net for the Seals in the third, while Toronto got a late power play score to go back up by three, 6-3, after three quarters.

The fourth quarter was a defensive battle for nearly the first 10 minutes until Robinson found a driving McIntosh, whose first goal of the night got the Seals back again within two at 6-4. Much to the Seals dismay, Toronto again had an answer with CJ Kirst scoring with 2:31 left to stretch the lead back to three. Berg would score a late goal with 1:07 left to get the Seals again within two at 7-5 but the Rock steadied on defense and held the Seals at bay, closing out the 7-5 victory.

The loss drops the Seals to 6-9 on the season. They will take the field again next Sunday, April 12, for a matinee affair in Georgia against the Swarm with a 4 p.m. ET faceoff at the Gas South Arena in Duluth.