By Chris Davis

SAN DIEGO — To say the game on Saturday night (Jan. 29) against the Calgary Roughnecks didn’t start the way the San Diego Seals were hoping for would be an understatement.  But the Seals fought back to take the 13-10 victory at Pechanga Arena San Diego in front of a boisterous crowd.

San Diego (5-1) kept pace with Colorado to stay ahead of the Mammoth to stay in first place in the Western Conference.

The Roughnecks (1-4) scored just 98 seconds into the game.  With the Seals not taking full control of the ball behind their own net, they allowed Zach Herreweyers to score the opening goal.

In his first game play since December 17, 2021 the rust showed early for Frank Scigliano as he allowed five goals on his first 13 shots faced.  After being relived for about 16 minutes, he came back and closed out with allowing a total of seven goals on 28 shots faced.

Austin Staats did Austin Staats things as he scored a hat trick (11) and assisted on six others.  Zack Greer (2), Tre Leclaire (2) and Wes Berg (2) all had multi-goal nights.  Jeremy Noble (6) and Dane Dobbie (3) joined Staats and Berg in the three or more assist club.

The Seals will now go out on the road for a game against Panther City before coming back home to begin a four-game homestand.  Albany will be the first team in on February 26.

Seals Notes… There were eight cross-checking penalties in the game (16 across the six games in the league) as the NLL officiating crews are cracking down on the illegal activity…The Buffalo Bandits are the only other team in the NLL right now with a three or more game winning streak, they play on Sunday, Jan. 30 against the New York Riptide.