Fresh off a thrilling 13-12 overtime victory in Colorado in which they erased a four-goal third-quarter deficit, the San Diego Seals are now headed to the NLL Playoff Semifinals where they’ll open a best-of-three series against the Toronto Rock this Friday night (May 1) at the TD Coliseum in Ontario. Faceoff is 4:30 p.m. PT.
It’s the third time in franchise history that the Seals have reached the NLL semis and it’ll be their first ever playoff meeting against the Rock. And while Game 1 is set to take place in Toronto, Game 2 will be at Pechanga Arena this Sunday afternoon (May 3) with a 3 p.m. faceoff, and if necessary, Game 3 will take place a week from Saturday (May 9) back in Toronto with a 4 p.m. PT faceoff.
The Seals and Rock both had to win single-elimination quarterfinal playoff games on the road to reach this point.
For the Seals, it was the aforementioned win over the No. 2 seed Colorado Mammoth this past Saturday night in Denver. Down 11-7 late in the third, Seals team captain Wes Berg led a furious comeback to send the game into overtime and 59 seconds into the extra session, Berg found Seals leading scorer Tre Leclaire alone in front of the net where he drove home the game-winner to send the Seals on.
Meanwhile for Toronto, the Rock rolled into the Sasktel Centre, home of the No. 3 seed Saskatchewan Rush and outscored the hosts 8-4 over the final 25:00 to turn a one-goal deficit into a 16-13 victory. The Rock were led by Chris Boushy, who scored five times, while CJ Kirst and Josh Dawick both recorded hat tricks.
The semifinals will offer the Seals a shot at redemption as twice the Rock handed the Seals defeats during the regular season. The first came by a 12-7 score at Pechanga Arena on Jan. 9 and more recently by a 7-5 margin on April 4 at the TD Coliseum. Since that last defeat, the Seals have won three of their last four and come into this weekend’s series riding high.
Toronto went 11-7 during the regular season to earn the No. 6 seed entering the playoffs and they finished the regular season strong, winning six of their last nine and four of their last six.
Scoring Goals in Droves
After struggling to find the back of the net for much of the regular season, the Seals have suddenly become the hottest scoring team on turf. They’ve scored 13 or more goals in their last three games, something they did just three times total during the regular season, and they’ve scored 52 total goals in their last four outings, including a season-high tying 16 in the regular season at Las Vegas.
And it’s been the Seals veterans who’ve been responsible for picking up the scoring pace.
Team captain Wes Berg scored three goals during the Seals’ overtime win over Colorado and he’s scored two or more goals in nine of the Seals’ last 11 games.
Zach Currier is often regarded as the NLL’s top transition player but he has looked more the part of one of the League’s top offensive players as he’s been on an absolute tear of late. Currier’s scored 10 goals and recorded 11 assists in the Seals’ last three. And in his more traditional role, Currier led the Seals this season with 200 loose balls secured and 23 caused turnovers.
Meanwhile “Big” Ben McIntosh, who battled injuries early in the year, has found a rhythm of late as he’s scored three or more goals in five of the Seals’ last seven contests.
And it’s not just the veterans as rookie Noah Armitage has caught fire of late as well. Inserted into the lineup ahead of the Seals’ 16th game of the season against fellow NLL semifinalist, Georgia, Armitage scored a pair of goals in the Seals 9-7 win over the Swarm that put the purple and gold in control of their playoff destiny. And just five nights later, Armitage recorded his first-career hat trick in a 14-12 win over Las Vegas that all but put the Seals into the NLL Playoffs. And speaking of the playoffs, Armitage came up big yet again in the Seals win over the Mammoth, racking up three assists, which were third-most on the team.
Getting Physical on D
While much of the recent attention has been focused on the Seals offense, the Seals defense shouldn’t be overlooked as it carried the team through the stretches when goals were tough to come by. Throughout most of the regular season, the Seals ranked in the top three in the League in fewest goals allowed. In fact, nine times during the regular season, that’s half the team’s games, the Seals held their opponents to nine goals or less.
The combination of goaltender Chris Origlieri and defensemen Danny Logan, Trent DiCicco, Eli Gobrecht and Graydon Bradley deserve a ton of credit for the Seals’ play on the back end.
Origlieri spent just shy of 949 minutes in between the pipes during the regular season and allowed just 10.18 goals per game. He stopped 576 of 737 shots (78.2 percent) on the season and his solid play carried over into postseason when the Seals needed it most as he allowed just one goal over the final 18:39 of regulation and overtime while the Seals erased a four-goal deficit in Colorado to win in sudden death.
Logan meanwhile paced the Seals defense with 108 loose balls secured on the season, while DiCicco racked up 89, Gobrecht 77 and Bradley 70. That feistiness also came with a price (for the opposition) as Bradley and Gobrecht led the team in minutes spent in the penalty box with 26 and 23, respectively.
And Logan wasn’t just a pest for the opposition with loose balls as he also paced the D with 22 forced turnovers, while Gobrecht was second with 14. Fellow defenseman James Barclay also deserves a nod for leading the team with 16 blocked shots, while Bradley was second with 13.
Baddest Man on the Faceoff Dot
The Seals get a major boost from faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste, regarded by many as the top faceoff man in all of lacrosse. Baptiste’s dominance on the dot was on full display during the Seals’ playoff opening win in Colorado when he came away with 26 of the game’s 29 faceoffs, an incredible 89.7% success rate.
And during the regular season, Baptiste led the NLL in both faceoff wins (327) and faceoff win percentage (75%), four percentage points clear of Halifax’s Jake Withers, who was second at 71%.
Oh Canada
While the Seals will officially be the road team on Friday night when the Seals and Rock kick off the semifinals in Toronto, it may feel more like a home game for the Seals as a good chunk of the roster and coaching staff has ties to the Greater Toronto region.
Seals Head Coach Patrick Merrill, assistant coach Brodie Merrill and Defensive Coach Cam Woods all call Toronto home, as do Seals players Cam Acchione, James Barclay, Chris Origlieri, Dylan Watson, Matt Wright, Ari Steenhuis, Cam Dunkerley and Corey Small. And even though he now resides in San Diego, Zack Deaken too is a native of Toronto.
And prior to joining the Seals before the start of the 2025-26 season, Small spent the previous three seasons playing for the Rock.
Seals-Rock Head-to-Head
Just like the Seals ended their playoff drought against Colorado last weekend, the Seals will look to do the same in this series against the Rock. All-time, the Seals are just 1-6 against Toronto and they are 1-3 in games played in Toronto and 0-3 in games played in San Diego.
Broadcast Information
All three games in the series will be streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.
Game One Friday night will air on local cable television in San Diego on YurView (Cox Communications Channel 4).
Sunday afternoon’s Game Two from Pechanga Arena will air on national cable television on ESPNU.
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