The Philadelphia Wings opened Friday night’s game in San Diego with a 4-2 lead after one quarter, but the Seals put things into lockdown after that and took a 13-7 victory in the back half of a home-and-home set between the clubs in Southern California.
It was a promising start for Philadelphia when Joe Resetarits opened the scoring just 43 seconds into the contest. Resetarits and Michael Sowers each bagged a pair of goals in the opening frame to build the two-goal advantage at the quarter break.
Unfortunately for the Wings, San Diego goaltender Chris Origlieri and the Seals defense clamped down from there and San Diego went on a 10-0 run that spanned the game game’s next 32 minutes. The Wings didn’t score again until Eric Fannell found the net on a power play 2:39 into the fourth quarter. Resetarits completed a hat trick later in the period, and Blaze Riorden scored the game’s final goal with 4:26 to play.
Sowers added two assists and Resetarits had one to give each player a four-point night. San Diego conspired to keep Wings leading scorer Brennan O’Neill out of the goal column, but he did add a pair of assists. With faceoff man Nick Rowlett sidelined due to injury, 2025 first-round pick Bo Columbus made his NLL debut and won six draws against San Diego’s Trevor Baptiste.
Nick Damude and Deacan Knott split the netminding duties; Damude stopped 33 of 42 shots faced in 34:16 before heading to the bench just over four minutes into the third quarter, while Knott turned away 16 of 20 shots faced in 25:44 the rest of the way.
The Wings will continue a three-game road swing next Saturday night in Buffalo against the Bandits. Their next home game is set for Sunday, February 22 against Saskatchewan.
