The San Diego Seals dropped the regular-season finale to the Buffalo Bandits by a final score of 18-7 on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena San Diego. With the Saskatchewan win over Colorado, the Seals have secured the second seed in the Western Division and will host the Calgary Roughnecks for the Western Division Semifinal on Monday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
“I’ll take full responsibility,” said general manager and head coach Patrick Merrill. “In order to win games in this league, you have to be mentally prepared and you have to be motivated to play with a lot of heart. If you don’t, games like this happen. Whatever we have to learn, we’re going to have to learn it quick because we have a huge opportunity next week at home to kick off the playoffs. Obviously, what we did tonight wasn’t enough, so we have to figure out a different way to win next week.”
The Seals offense couldn’t get going after being held to a season-low one goal in the first quarter. Forwards Dan Dawson and Joe Walters each netted a pair of goals, while forward Garrett Billings added three assists.
“We were bad at every facet of the game tonight,” said Dawson. “I thought defensively we were trying to do a little too much. On offense, we were short and weren’t giving them the rest they deserve. We needed to be better.”