San Diego Seals Welcome The Calgary Roughnecks To Pechanga Arena San Diego

The San Diego Seals will play host to the Calgary Roughnecks in the team’s second inaugural home game at Pechanga Arena San Diego Friday at 7:00 p.m. PT, marking the second of three regular season matchups between the two Western Division foes.

San Diego dropped its first meeting with the Roughnecks, 9-5, in late December. Calgary goalie Christian Del Bianco, who leads the NLL in saves so far this season, limited the Seals’ offense significantly, registering 46 saves in the process. San Diego’s top scorer, rookie phenom Austin Staats, couldn’t get by Del Bianco, and veteran forward Kyle Buchanan followed suit with zero goals of his own despite leading the team in shots (10).

Calgary’s Rhys Duch and Dane Dobbie dominated on the offensive end, combining for 11 points and 31 shots. The 32-year-old Dobbie, who is now five games into his 12th season in the NLL, finished the game with the team lead in shots (19) and points (six), while Duch, an 11-year veteran forward, finished with 12 shots and five points (3G, 2A).

Staats, who lit up Pechanga Arena to the tune of a team-high four goals just a week ago, will need to keep such momentum going in his second faceoff with Del Bianco and the Roughnecks. Staats leads both his team and all NLL rookies in goals and points at 13 and 22, respectively.

Veteran San Diego forwards Kyle Buchanan and Dan Dawson also play an integral role on the team’s offensive end alongside Staats. Buchanan leads the team in assists (13) and ranks second behind Staats in points with 19, while Dawson ranks second in assists with 11 and third in points (16).

Duch and Dobbie will lead the Roughnecks in their attempt to match the offensive successes of Staats & Co., and it will be up to the Seals’ high-performing veteran in net, Frank Scigliano, to limit the Calgary duo.

Scigliano spent each of his first seven years in the NLL with Calgary before going 12th overall to the Seals in the 2018 NLL Expansion Draft. The rise of Del Bianco in 2018 pushed Scigliano out of Calgary and onto the Seals’ roster. He logged 49 saves in San Diego’s December affair with the Roughnecks in Calgary and now ranks second behind his former teammate, Del Bianco, in saves with 179 on the year.

Seals’ Garrett McIntosh will also be seeing old friends again, as he too was claimed off of Calgary’s roster as the 14th overall pick in the 2018 NLL Expansion Draft. He turned in career highs in goals (six), assists (six) and loose balls (50) in 2018 and has already scooped up 17 loose balls in three games with the seals in 2019.

Limited tickets are still available, reserve your seats today at SealsLax.com. Fans unable to attend the game on Saturday will be able to watch the game on Síntesis TV in San Diego and Baja Mexico on channel 50.4. B/R Live – Turner’s live sports streaming service – will stream all San Diego Seals games throughout the 2018-19 season.