Seals Head to Vancouver in Search of Win No. 2
NLL San Diego Seals

Seals Head to Vancouver in Search of Win No. 2

Published on January 14, 2026 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
San Diego Seals News Release


The San Diego Seals find themselves in unfamiliar territory at just 1-3 on the season and they'll look to right the ship this weekend when they head to British Columbia, Canada to face the 3-1 Vancouver Warriors on Friday night at Rogers Arena. Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. PT.

Friday night's game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on Spectrum Cable Channel 4 and streamed to a global audience on ESPN+.

The Seals haven't started a season 1-3 since 2019-20, though that year they rallied to finish 6-6 in a season that was halted by the COVID pandemic. This year, the Seals opened the season with a win in Ottawa but that victory was followed by three straight home defeats to Rochester, Calgary and Toronto. Vancouver has done the complete opposite, falling to Colorado in their season opener before rattling off three straight wins over Las Vegas, Oshawa and Calgary.

Eleven different players have scored goals for the Seals this season, led by forwards Tre Leclaire (11), Wes Berg (7) and Corey Small (5). And the Seals have given themselves plenty of opportunities to score as faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste is winning a league-leading 86% of his faceoffs with a league-high (tied) 97 faceoff wins. Defensively, Zach Currier leads the Seals with 47 loose balls secured and he's tied with Matthew Wright for the team lead in forced turnovers with five.

On the opposite bench, former Seal Curtis Dickson leads the Warriors with 10 goals while Keegan Bal has a team-leading 27 points on eight goals and 19 assists. The Seals will face a formidable challenge in Vancouver goaltender Christian Del Bianco whose 83% save percentage is second-highest in the League among starting netminders.

The Seals and Warriors met twice last season with each team coming out victorious on their home floor. The Warriors won 11-9 at Rogers Arena on Jan. 10 and the Seals returned the favor with a 13-11 win at Pechanga Arena on March 7.

Regular-Season Milestones on the Horizon

- Wes Berg (288 career goals) needs 12 more to reach 300 for his career.

- Berg (695 career points) needs 5 more to reach 700 for his career.

- Eli Gobrecht has 89 career forced turnovers and needs just 11 more to reach 100.

- Corey Small has scored 955 career points and needs 45 more to reach 1,000.

- Zach Currier has 1,396 loose balls secured during his career and needs just 4 more to reach 1,400.

Seals-Warriors Head-to-Head

All-time the Seals and Warriors have faced off 13 times and the Seals hold an 9-4 series edge. The Seals have won five of the last six in the series. They're 3-2 in games played at Rogers Arena and 6-2 in games played at Pechanga Arena.

A Look Back at Last Season's Contests

Jan. 10, 2025 at Vancouver: A defensive battle for three quarters turned into an offensive shootout in the fourth and the Seals came up on the short end, falling 11-9 to the Warriors at Rogers Center. After combining for just nine goals in the game's opening three quarters, the teams dropped the gloves and tallied 11 in the fourth and final quarter, but eight of those were scored by the Warriors, including a game-high six by forward Keegan Bal, all in that fourth and final period. A 6-3 game heading into the fourth quarter, Vancouver scored twice in the first 3:57 to climb within a goal at 6-5. The Seals scored to jump ahead 7-5, but Vancouver went on a 4-0 run to jump ahead 9-7 with 4:33 left in the game. After a Seals goal to get back with a goal at 9-8, Wes Berg was called for a holding penalty and Seals Head Coach Patrick Merrill made a gutsy decision to pull goaltender Chris Origlieri to draw to even strength and Merrill's faith was rewarded as the visitors scored a goal with 1:27 left to tie the game at 9-9. With Origlieri back on the field and Vancouver still on the power play, Bal scored his fifth of the night just 19 seconds later to put the Warriors back up, 10-9 and less than a minute later, Bal dashed the Seals hopes of a comeback, scoring an empty netter with just 14 seconds left for the final goal of the night.

March 7 at Pechanga Arena: Wes Berg's goal with 1:20 left in the fourth quarter ended a 17:23 scoreless drought and propelled the Seals to a 13-11 win over the Warriors at Pechanga Arena. The goal was Berg's game-leading fourth of the night. It was a 4-3 game after one quarter. Berg scored the first goal of the night just 25 seconds in before adding a power play goal midway through the quarter. The Seals outscored the Warriors 5-3 in the second to take an 8-7 lead at halftime. Five different Seals scored in the quarter. Zach Currier opened the scoring with a nifty backhanded goal just 38 seconds in. Forty-six seconds later, Dylan Watson rebounded his own miss and scored to give the Seals a 5-4 lead. Vancouver scored the game's next three goals over a 2:16 stretch before the Seals countered with a three-goal run of their own that included goals from Ben McIntosh and Berg's third of the night. The third quarter was all Seals as they outscored Vancouver 3-0 to surge ahead 11-7. Tre Leclaire was at the right place at the right time, scoring the first on a scoop-and-score, while the Seals added a pair of power play goals. While the third quarter was all Seals, the fourth quarter was all Warriors, at least in the early going. Vancouver scored 1:04 into the fourth quarter, ending a 24:33 scoreless stretch and proceeded to score 3 more unanswered over the next 4:04 to tie the contest 11-11. Seals netminder Chris Origlieri settled back down and held Vancouver scoreless for the final 9:52, setting the stage for Berg's game-winner.

Roster Breakdown

The Seals' current 21-man regular season roster sees the team carrying eight forwards, seven defenders, four transition men and two goalies. The breakdown is below:

Forwards: Wes Berg, Ben McIntosh, Jake Govett, Tre Leclaire, Pat Kavanagh, Dylan Watson, Connor Robinson, Corey Small, and Noah Armitage.

Defensemen: Danny Logan, Kellen Leclair, Graydon Bradley, Eli Gobrecht, Matt Wright, Patrick Shoemay, James Barclay and Zack Deaken.

Transition: Zach Currier, Trent DiCicco, faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste and rookie Ari Steenhuis.

Goaltenders: Chris Origlieri and Cam Dunkerley, Tyden Redlick.

Kellen Leclair, Origlieri and McIntosh are currently on Injured-Reserve, as is transition man Cam Acchione who started the season on the Injured-Reserve list. Also, forward Chris Kavanagh is on the Physically Unable to Perform list. All players are expected to return, though there is no timeline for when that will take place.

Team Captains

Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill announced the team's 2025-26 Team Captains going into the season as voted on by the players.

Wes Berg will serve as team captain for the third straight season. Danny Logan and Graydon Bradley have been selected as assistant captains for home games, while Zach Currier and Eli Gobrecht have been tabbed as assistant captains for the team's road contests.

Seals Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill

Seals Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill owns a career regular-season won-loss ledger of 63-43 (.594) since joining the Seals in 2018. He has guided the Seals to the playoffs in each of the five full seasons he's been at the helm.

The Electric Factory

Despite the slow start to the Seals' 2025-26 campaign, Pechanga Arena (aka "The Electric Factory") remains one of the toughest and loudest arenas to play in for opposing teams in the National Lacrosse League. The Seals have won nine of their last 15 regular-season games at Pechanga Arena and since the start of the 2022-23 season, San Diego is 21-9 in regular-season games played inside The Electric Factory.

Check out the San Diego Seals Statistics

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National Lacrosse League Stories from January 14, 2026


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