San Diego survives furious comeback at Philadelphia and holds off Wings, 12-11, for third straight win.
Faced with spending the entire month of January on the road, the San Diego Seals survived a furious comeback at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center and held off the host Wings, 12-11, to capture their third straight victory and improve to 5-2 on the season.
The Seals got off to a lightning fast start and took a 5-1 lead with a five-goal first period that included a pair of scores by Curtis Dickson along with individual goals by Wes Berg, Kyle Jackson and Tre Leclaire.
Dickson, Leclaire and Austin Staats each scored a team-high three goals in the contest.
The teams traded goals in the second period with each side scoring twice. San Diego’s two goals came courtesy of Berg and Staats and the Seals led 7-3 at the break.
Philadelphia had a strong third quarter, outscoring San Diego 3-1, including a pair of power play goals, to climb within 8-6 heading to the fourth and final period.
The fourth quarter was a furious one that featured plenty of drama as the Seals and Wings combined for nine goals.
Just 39 seconds into the fourth quarter, Philadelphia’s Chad Tutton was called for a five-minute major penalty for body checking Dickson. Staats took advantage of the delayed call from the officials and with an extra man on the turf, he scored to put the Seals up 9-6. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was then tacked on to Tutton’s body checking penalty, giving the Seals a seven-minute power play. San Diego took full advantage with Tre Leclaire scoring a pair of goals a man up before Staats added his third of the night at even strength to put the Seals up 12-7 with 10:23 remaining in the contest.
Despite trailing by five goals, Philadelphia refused to go away and the Wings scored four unanswered goals, including a goal with just 51 seconds remaining, to climb within 12-11, but the Seals buckled down in the final seconds and held on for the win.
Goalkeeper Chris Origlieri made 41 saves in earning his third straight victory while Leclaire paced the Seals with five assists.
The Seals will enjoy some home cooking next weekend as the team returns to Pechanga Arena to face their West Conference rivals, the Colorado Mammoth, Sunday, Feb. 4, at 3 p.m. PT.
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