The San Diego Seals (2-2) will return to the turf at Pechanga Arena, aka “The Electric Factory,” this Saturday night (Jan. 4) when they face the Ottawa Black Bears (2-1). Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. PT.
Ticket Information: Tickets to Saturday night’s game, which is also Country Night at Pechanga Arena, are available at https://sealslax.com/.
Pechanga Arena has become one of the toughest arenas to play in for opposing teams in the National Lacrosse League. The Seals have won five of their last six regular-season home games and since the start of the 2022-23 season, they are 17-4 during the regular season in games played at Pechanga.
The Black Bears are the former New York Riptide as franchise re-located from Long Island to Ottawa and re-branded for the 2024-25 season. Both of Ottawa’s wins this season came against Toronto while their lone defeat was to the reigning NLL Champion Buffalo Bandits.
Seals-Black Bears Head-to-Head: This will be the first ever meeting between the Seals and Black Bears, but the Seals and Riptide met three times since the Seals joined the NLL. All three games were played in New York with the Seals winning two of three. The Seals beat the Riptide 15-11 during the 2019-20 season and 15-14 during the 2022-23 season. New York’s lone victory was a 10-8 win last season at the Nassau Coliseum.
A Look Back at Last Season’s Contest: The Seals went on the road and saw a four-game win streak come to a halt as the Riptide used a big second half effort to come away with a 10-8 victory at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. The game was a tale of two halves. New York scored the game’s first goal 5:55 into the contest but it was all Seals early on as San Diego scored seven of the game’s next eight goals to claim a 7-2 lead at intermission. The second half was a completely different story. New York outscored the Seals 3-1 in the third quarter to climb within 8-5 after three periods but the fourth and final quarter was all New York as the Riptide shut out the Seals while netting five goals of their own. It included a pair of scores from Jeff Teat, who finished the night with a game-high four goals for the Riptide.
Broadcast Information: For those not able to make it to Pechanga Arena in person, Saturday night’s game will be broadcast to a national cable television audience on ESPNU.
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