After combining for 60 goals in two nights, the Seals and Las Vegas Desert Dogs wrapped up the 2026 NLL regular season on Saturday night at the Lee’s Family Forum in in Sin City with the hosts topping the Seals by a final score of 18-16. The 16 goals matched the Seals’ season high and the 34 combined goals were the most in a game in Seals history.
Eight different players scored for the Seals, including Ben McIntosh, who scored a team-high four, while Connor Robinson and Tre Leclaire each netted hat tricks.
It was a chippy and physical game that featured 19 penalties and seven combined power play goals. With the regular season now concluded, the Seals will turn their attention to the NLL Playoffs that will begin for the Seals next weekend with a single-elimination quarterfinal playoff matchup against the Colorado Mammoth. Date and time are TBD.
The Seals outscored the Desert Dogs 3-2 Saturday night’s opening 15 minutes. Zach Currier, who scored a career-high five goals for the Seals on Friday night, picked up right where he left off, scoring the first for the Seals 2:57 into the contest. Tre Leclaire and Connor Robinson scored the Seals’ other two goals with Leclaire’s coming on the power play.
The hostilities that simmered over from Friday night’s Seals win came to the forefront early in the second period. On the ensuing faceoff after Tony Malcom’s game-tying goal a minute into the third, Desert Dogs defenseman Rhys Blake delivered an illegal blindside hit on Seals faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste that sent Baptiste sprawling face-first into the turf. Blake was assessed a five-minute major penalty and sent off for the night with a game misconduct penalty. The enraged Seals would go on to score two power play goals during the penalty, one by Leclaire and another by Robinson, but the Desert Dogs managed to score a pair of shorthanded goals themselves as the Seals weren’t able to capitalize on the five-minute penalty against Blake. Las Vegas would then go on to outscore the Seals by a 5-1 margin over the final 7:27 of the second as they surged ahead to a 10-6 lead at the break.
The Desert Dogs’ hot streak continued after intermission as they scored twice in the opening 1:58 of the third to extend their lead to 12-6. McIntosh cooled things down with a pair of goals 2:19 apart, the latter at the 9:50 mark, as the Seals drew back within four. The teams then traded four goals over the final 8:36, the Seals’ goals by Currier and Chris Kavanagh, as Las Vegas took a 14-10 lead into the fourth quarter.
Just like they did to start the third quarter, Vegas struck twice early in the fourth to stretch their lead back to six. Still trailing 16-10 midway through the fourth, Cam Acchione scored a goal with 7:48 left in the contest that lit the fuse on what would become a furious Seals comeback. McIntosh would score his third of the night 23 seconds later and once again the Seals were back within four at 16-12. Las Vegas’ Chris Cloutier, who scored a game-high five goals for the Desert Dogs, scored with 6:01 left to put the home team back on top by five, but the Seals came right back with three goals in a 1:13 stretch and Leclaire’s third goal of the night got the Seals back within two at 17-15 with 4:34 left. Las Vegas however was able to stymie the Seals run as Cloutier scored his fifth of the night with 1:57 left on a power play to put the hosts up by three. McIntosh scored his fourth of the night with 18 seconds left but time would run out on the Seals as Las Vegas would close out the 18-16 win.
With the loss, the Seals finish the regular season at 8-10 and they will enter the NLL Playoffs as the No. 7 seed. Las Vegas also finishes the year 8-10 but failed to make the playoffs due to the League’s tiebreaker scenarios.
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