It took overtime and an official’s review, but the San Diego Seals advanced to the National Lacrosse League’s semifinals with a 9-8 win over Panther City Lacrosse Club on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena.
The winning goal came from the stick of veteran forward Dane Dobbie at 12:11 of overtime and provided joy — not to mention a whole lot of relief — after two hours of action which saw the teams trade goals and physical play.
“Thank goodness, right?” said Seals forward Austin Staats, who finished with four goals and an assist. “Hard as heck. Just battling all night. But that’s this league right? Nothing easy.”
The Seals will face the winner of Sunday’s matchup between the third-seeded Albany FireWolves and sixth-seeded Halifax Thunderbirds in a best-of-three semifinal series. Should Albany win, the Seals would host Game 1 on May 3. Should Halifax win, the Thunderbirds would host a Game 1 on May 4 and the Seals would host a Game 2 on May 10.
As the higher-seeded team, the Seals will have home field advantage for either series.
The Seals beat both teams during the regular season, winning 14-7 at Albany on Jan. 20 and 12-8 over Halifax at Pechanga Arena on March 9.
No matter what happens, it’s hard to imagine that the Seals will play a game quite like Saturday night’s when neither team held a two-goal advantage and fans were kept on the edge of their seats throughout.
The Seals finished with a 63-45 advantage in shots on goal and crucially, Trevor Baptiste won 19 of 21 face offs.
Goalie Chrisopher Origlieri finished with 37 saves, including several crucial stops late in the fourth quarter and in overtime.
Dobbie posted three goals and an assist while forward Wes Berg finished with five assists, including one on Dobbie’s game winner.
“Just a fun game, a thrill for sure,” said Seals general manager and head coach Patrick Merrill. “That is this league in the playoffs. The teams are so evenly matched. Really have to credit Chris (Origlieri) and the defense for coming up with some big stops late.”
And Dobbie?
“He’s a guy built to play in April and May,” Merrill said. “He’s been a big time player for a long time in this league and he came through tonight.”
Dobbie opened scoring with a goal at 2:36 of the first quarter and from there, the teams traded goals throughout a tightly played, highly entertaining first half.
Neither team managed more than a single goal lead and Dobbie sent the game to halftime tied at 6-6 when he scored off an assist from Berg with 2.5 seconds remaining.
Panther City had to feel good going to the locker room locked in a tie after being outshot 34-21 and seeing Baptiste win 13 of 14 face offs, an edge that allowed the Seals to enjoy a healthy advantage in possession.
The Seals took a 7-6 lead when Staats scored his third goal of the game at 12:36 of the third quarter and Panther City responded with a goal from Mathieu Gautier at 6:50.
The game’s pace slowed down from what took place in the frenetic first half as both teams used more shot clock time looking for a high quality shot.
In the fourth, Panther City’s Tony Malcolm scored at 12:21 and Staats answered at 10:25.
With the score tied 8-8, the teams took turns creating decent scoring chances.
Dobbie clanged a shot off the post with 1:27 to play and Staats had a shot blocked a few seconds later.
After gaining possession and taking a timeout with 13.5 seconds to play, Panther City was unable to create a last shot and the game went to overtime.
Moments after just missing a point-blank attempt, Dobbie ripped a winner to win it.
The Pechanga Arena crowd exploded as Dobbie was quickly mobbed by joyous teammates on the field.
