A pair of former Roughnecks led the Seals to a 9-4 victory over Calgary at Pechanga Arena in San Diego on Friday.
Goalie Frank Scigliano had a stellar performance with 50 saves to backstop the Seals to victory, while Wesley Berg led all scorers with three goals and two assists.
Despite firing 16 shots on goal in the first quarter, the Riggers weren’t able to find the back of the net behind Scigliano. Meanwhile, the Seals scored twice to take a 2-0 lead.
Curtis Dickson marked his return to the lineup by scoring a power-play goal 77 seconds into the second quarter to pull the Riggers within one.
Undeterred, the Riggers kept peppering the San Diego net with shots, but they were continually denied by Scigliano, who turned aside breakaway attempts by Eli Salama and Jesse King. Despite outshooting the Seals 36-25 in the first half, the ’Necks found themselves down 3-1.
Shane Simpson pulled the visitors within a goal with a shorthanded marker at 7:31 of the third quarter, but the home side bounced back to score the next five goals.
After Dickson wired a penalty-shot attempt off the post behind Scigliano in the fourth quarter, Dan Taylor and Tanner Cook scored goals 80 seconds apart for Calgary.
The Riggers then pressed hard to try to cut even more into San Diego’s lead, but weren’t able to do so and the Seals added an empty-net goal to secure the victory.
Goalie Christian Del Bianco played well in the Calgary net as he made 43 saves to keep his team within striking distance.
COACH’S CORNER:
“Big Frankie’s playing really, really well for them. Delbs is one of, if not the top in the league, in our minds. It was a war. Delbs had a really good save percentage. Frank’s save percentage was really good too. It was like neither guy was going to crack.”
“Our defence was good. We’ve just got to execute up front. It wasn’t for lack of effort. I’m not disappointed in our effort. I’m disappointed in the result in the standings-wise, but we’re doing a lot of good things.”
BY THE NUMBERS:
Curtis Dickson, 1g, 1a
Shane Simpson, 1g
Tanner Cook, 1g
Dan Taylor, 1g
Jesse King, 2a
Tyler Pace, 1a
Kyle Waters, 1a
Zach Currier, 11 loose balls
Christian Del Bianco, 1a, 43 saves
SAY WHAT:
“That was probably one of the better goalie performances I’ve ever seen, to be honest. I’ve been in the league 10 years. Full marks to Frankie. He was incredible tonight. Delbs was the same way. He was seeing the ball well and he gave us every chance in the world to win that game.” – Curtis Dickson
“I hit a few posts tonight. Unfortunately, it was one of those nights. The ball wasn’t dropping. You’re going to have those games every once in a while, but at the end of the day we’re pros and we need to come out and put the ball into the net to win games, so that’s something we need to look at and obviously improve on going forward.”
NEXT UP:
The Riggers will enjoy a bye week before returning home to the Scotiabank Saddledome for a pair of contests against the Saskatchewan Rush on March 17 and the expansion Panther City Lacrosse Club two nights later.
