The San Diego Seals will travel cross country on Saturday knowing that their next game could be their last.
Despite a frantic late comeback that saw them nearly erase a five-goal lead in the final six minutes, the Seals dropped Game 1 of a best-of-three NLL semifinal series 14-12 to the Albany FireWolves Friday night at Pechanga Arena.
Game 2 is Sunday at noon in Albany and if necessary, the series will swing back to San Diego for Game 3 will be Friday night.
The Firewolves outshot the Seals 52-39, killed off five of seven San Diego power plays and used a 5-0 first half scoring run to open up a 6-2 lead.
The Seals appeared to be goners when Albany’s Marshall Powless scored a power play goal to make it 13-8 visitors with 5:54 to play but two goals from Curtis Dickson and scores from Tre Leclaire and Dane Dobbie drew San Diego within 13-12 with 1:07 to play.
The Seals pulled goalie Chris Origlieri for an extra attacker but Albany won the ball and Colton Watkinson scored an empty net breakaway to for the final score.
Alex Simmons led the way for Albany with five goals and five assists while Dickson (four goals, two assists), Wesley Berg (two goals, two assists) and Dane Dobbie (three goals, one assist) led the way offensively for the Seals
San Diego’s Dobbie, who won last week’s single elimination first-round playoff game with the deciding goal in overtime, opened scoring by ripping a shot into the Albany goal just 40 seconds into the first quarter.
The teams then traded goals and Albany took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter when Sam Firth beat Origlieri with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
The FireWolves continued applying heavy pressure and built a 6-2 lead on early second quarter goals from Simmons, Ethan Walker (power play) and Tye Kurtz.
The Seals pulled one back on a power play goal from Dobbie and then drew within 6-4 when Berg slashed a shot home with 38.3 seconds left in the first half.
San Diego’s Tim Leclaire opened scoring in the second half when he deflected a Dickson shot past Albany goalie Justin Geddie but the FireWolves quickly responded with goals from Simmons and Nathan Grenon.
Trailing 8-5, the Seals pulled Origlieri for an extra attacker, drew a penalty and cashed in the man advantage chance when Dickson scored.
Albany closed the third quarter with a pair of goals from Simmons and another from Grenon to carry an 11-6 edge into the fourth.
Austin Staats and Berg scored for San Diego but Albany quickly answered Berg’s tally when Mike Bryne scored on a breakaway with 10:39 to play.
The Seals will now head to Albany hoping to replicate their effort in a 14-7 win over the FireWolves back in January.
The San Diego/Albany series winner will face the winner of the top-seeded Toronto Rock and four-seeded Buffalo Bandits in a best-of-three NLL championship series.
Buffalo dominated Game 1 of that semifinal series winning 12-4 earlier Friday evening in Albany.
Game 2 of that series is Sunday in Buffalo.
