The San Diego Seals started the back-to-back weekend off on the right foot as the team defeated the Calgary Roughnecks by a final score of 15-9 in front of 7,283 fans at Pechanga Arena on Friday night.
“We didn’t have our best showing the last time we played Calgary,” said general manager and head coach Patrick Merrill. “We know how good they are and how good they are coached. It’s nice to be able to come out and get this win. The game was chippy, intense and passionate, but the guys played for their teammates.”
A pair of Seals netted hat tricks in the divisional win, including forward Casey Jackson who was a part of the six-goal run San Diego went on to finish the third quarter.
“It was fiery out there,” said Jackson. “The crowd really got into it, we knew they would be considering how they were in the first game. They were loud and it’s always nice when we have a small victory and the crowd gets into it. We were celebrating the small victories and playing the game five minutes at a time. We knew we wanted to come in to this game and be aggressive.”
Goaltender Frank Scigliano continued to stand tall between the pipes for the Seals. He finished the night with 37 saves and a win against his former team.
“It’s always fun when you’re winning,” said Scigliano. “We battled for 60 minutes. We talked about the plan beforehand, stuck to the process and it paid off for us tonight. The little things add up, and that run in the third was huge for us. It was a lot of hard work between two teams. I wanted to beat them.”
Rookie forward Austin Staats stayed hot with three goals and four assists in the win. Forward Garrett Billings finished the night with six points (two goals, four assists), while forward Dan Dawson netted a pair and added three assists.
The San Diego Seals head to Vancouver to play the Warriors in a Saturday night showdown at Rogers Arena at 7:00 PM PST. The Seals return home to Pechanga Arena San Diego on Fri., Feb. 8 to play the Vancouver Warriors for the first time in San Diego. Reserve your seats today at SealsLax.com.