The San Diego Seals, 18-15 winners over the Philadelphia Wings in their season opener in San Diego this past Sunday, will hit the road for the first time this season when they take on the Georgia Swarm (0-0) at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia this Saturday night (Dec. 7) at 5 p.m. PT.
Georgia had a Bye in Week 1 so Saturday night’s game will mark the 2024-25 NLL season-opener for the Swarm, who finished 10-8 last season before falling to Buffalo (10-9) in the NLL Playoff Quarterfinals.
Broadcast Information: Saturday night’s game will be broadcast locally in San Diego on KUSI-TV and available to a global streaming audience on ESPN+.
The Seals (1-0) won their season opener in impressive fashion, overcoming an early 5-1 deficit to defeat the Wings 18-15. In his Seals regular-season debut, forward Ryan Benesch scored a team-leading five goals for the Seals and added four assists, tying Wes Berg for the team lead in that category. Fellow newcomers Ben McIntosh and Rob Hellyer both made impressive debuts as well with McIntosh scoring four goals to go along with a pair of assists while Hellyer racked up three goals and three assists.
Transition player Zach Currier, yet another Seals newcomer, scooped up a team-leading 12 loose balls while Danny Logan, who also filled in for injured faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste, recovered 10 loose balls of his own. And goaltender Chris Origlieri bounced back nicely from a tough start in which he was briefly pulled from the game by Head Coach Patrick Merrill and finished the night with 24 saves while holding the Wings to just six goals over the final 30 minutes.
Seals-Swarm Head-to-Head: This is just the third-ever meeting between the Seals and Swarm. Georgia defeated the Seals, 17-10, in the first meeting during the 2018-19 season and the Seals returned the favor a year ago, scoring a 12-11 overtime win with Wes Berg scoring the game-winner in OT.
A Cloer Look Back at Last Season’s Meeting: Wes Berg scored a season-high six goals, including the game-winner in overtime, as the Seals defeated Georgia, 12-11. The game was close early. Jake Govett scored the first goal of the night for the Seals, but Georgia scored four of the next six and led 4-3 after one period. The Swarm extended its lead to 5-3 in the second before Berg scored his first two of the night to send the teams to the locker room tied 5-5 at intermission. Georgia came out firing in the third quarter, scoring three unanswered goals to take an 8-5 lead before the Seals responded with a pair of goals of their own, including a power-play goal by Berg. Georgia came right back with a pair of goals to jump back out front, 10-7, before the Seals rattled off four straight scores, including a pair by Berg, to take their first lead since early in the contest, 11-10 with 6:08 remaining. Unable to extend their lead, the Seals surrendered a late goal to the Swarm to tie the game at 11-11 and send it into overtime, setting up Berg’s heroics. The teams traded possessions early in the OT period before Berg found a crease on a shot from the top of the circle 4:12 into the overtime session as the Seals claimed the 12-11 victory to improve to 7-3 on the season.
Head Coach Patrick Merrill: Patrick Merrill heads into Saturday night’s game with a regular-season won-loss ledger of 54-31 (.635) since joining the Seals in 2018. He has guided the Seals to the playoffs in each of the four full seasons he’s been at the helm.
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