Nights might be getting downright chilly but there seems to be plenty of choices to tickle the fancy of indoor winter sports fans with the San Diego Seals (National League Lacrosse), San Diego Sockers (Major Arena Soccer league) and San Diego Gulls (American Hockey League) all having faced off their respective 2024-25 seasons.
The Seals defeated longtime rival Colorado Mammoth, 14- 11, last Friday after opening the season on Dec. 1 with an 18-15 win over the visiting Philadelphia Wings, followed by a narrow 13-12 road loss to the Georgia Swarm on Dec. 7.
The Seals are averaging 4,569 fans through their opening two home dates. Overall, the league is averaging 6,011 fans with 12 of the 14 clubs hosting at least one home game thus far.
The Sockers inaugurated their new home field at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside last Saturday with a 6-5 overtime victory over the Utica City Football Club before 4,508 spectators to even their early season record at 1-1.
Newcomer Luiz Morales keyed the history-making event with a hat trick, including the overtime game-winning goal. Veteran Kraig Chiles, the team’s all-time leading scorer, chipped in with one goal.
The Sockers have three more home games on their current homestand: Dec. 20 against the Tacoma Stars (7:35 p.m.), Dec. 28 against the Empire Strykers (7:05 p.m.) and Jan. 5 against the Chihuahua Savage (6:05 p.m.).
The Sockers kicked off the season with a 5-4 loss in Tacoma on Dec. 7.
Olympics-bound
Lacrosse is one of five sports to be added to the Olympic program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It joins cricket, baseball/ softball, squash and flag football. Baseball and softball have been in the Olympic lineup previously.
Lacrosse was last included as a medal sport in 1908 and a demonstration sport in 1948.
Lacrosse will feature a “sixes” format similar to “sevens” in rugby to speed up the game. In line with that, a women’s professional league, Women’s National Lacrosse, will follow the Olympic Sixes format with its 2025 launch.
In the meantime, fans can get a feel for the Olympic “sixes” format with the Seals and their NLL rivals. The league is celebrating its 38th season in 2024-25, so it’s obviously time to adapt it to a summer outdoor format.
Rugby Sevens has been a hit, so why not Lacrosse Sixes?
Put 25 goals between teams in front of 7-8,000 fans in an enclosed arena and the noise can be deafening.
Outdoors, it should be more TV-friendly with a fast-paced appeal.
Wesley Berg led the Seals (2-1) with seven points on four goals and three assists in last Friday’s game while Rob Hellyer pitched in with five points on two goals and three assists.
Nine players overall collected points in the win. Kyle Jackson (three goals, one assist) and Zach Currier (two goals, two assists) both recorded four point while Danny Logan (two goals, one assist), Ben McIntosh (three assists) and Ryan Benesch (three assists) each collected three points.
The Seals out-shot the Mammoth 50-43 with Christopher Origlieri making 32 saves for the victors.
The Seals are in the midst of a three-game home stand. San Diego hosts the Swarm (2-0) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21, before hosting the Ottawa Black Bears to ring in the new year on Jan. 4. The regular season extends through April 18 in advance of the championship playoffs.
The Seals (13-5 in 2022-23) advanced as far as the semifinals to cap last season.
National League Lacrosse includes 14 teams this season. The new format no longer includes conferences with teams playing each other at least once with four “flex” rivalry games featured.
The Seals play alongside Colorado, Vancouver Warriors, Calgary Roughnecks, Las Vegas Desert Dogs, Saskatchewan Rush, Georgia, Toronto Rock, Rochester Knighthawks, Philadelphia, Albany Firewolves, Buffalo Bandits, Halifax Thunderbirds and Ottawa.
The Seals will play 18 regular season games — nine at home and nine on the road.
There was a lot of parity in last season’s playoff tournament.
Fourth-seeded Buffalo defeated third-seeded Albany, 2-0, in the teams’ best-of-three championship series. Albany defeated the second-seeded Seals, 2-0, while Buffalo upset top-seeded Toronto, 2-0.
The Seals opened the playoffs with a 9-8 overtime win over seventh-seeded Panther City in the single-elimination quarterfinals.
Albany slipped past San Diego in the semifinals by scores of 14- 12 and 13-10. Buffalo tamed the Firewovles in the finals by score of 12-8 and 15-13.
Games are televised in the United States on ESPN and in Canada on TSN.
Hot on ice
The Gulls appear to be hitting their stride as they pass the quarter mark of the AHL campaign with a five-game points streak (4-0-0-1) that netted nine out of a possible 10 standings points.
In their two most recent home games, the Gulls edged the visiting Henderson Silver Knights, 5-4, on Dec. 11 and topped the visiting San Jose Barracuda, 5-2, last Saturday.
The Silver Knights entered the midweek matchup with the worst record in the 32-team league. The Gulls snapped a 2-2 tie between the Pacific Division rivals en route to zipping ahead 5-3 before the Nevadans made it close at the end in front of 4,809 fans.
First-year pro Yegor Sidorov scored two goals and assisted on the game-winner to record the first multi-point night of his career and, in the process, earn the game’s first star award. Judd Caulfield and Nikita Nesterenko both added a goal and assist while Jaxsen Wiebe notched his first goal of the season.
The Barracuda, on the other hand, entered Saturday’s Winter Wonderland contest with the second-best record in the division at 15-6-0-1 — 14 standings points ahead of the hosts. The Bay Area visitors showcased their speed in the first period despite trailing 1-0 on the scoreboard. However, the Gulls proved to be the dominant team over the final two periods, increasing their lead to 4-0 before settling for the three-goal victory in front of 8,323 fans.
Sidorov earned the No. 1 star award again with one goal and two assists for his second consecutive three-point night. It marked his fourth consecutive game with a goal.
Tristan Luneau notched his first career AHL goal, Jan Mysak scored a shorthanded goal, Nathan Gaucher scored his first goal of tougher season and Sam Colangelo, back from a call-up to the NHL parent Anaheim Ducks, tacked on a goal and assist all for the Gulls.
Goaltender Calle Clang stopped 28 of 30 shots to log his fourth consecutive win between the pipes.
It wasn’t a shocker when Sidorov, 20, earned AHL Player of the Week honors for the period ending Dec. 15 after tallying three goals and three assists in the wins over Henderson and San Jose.
A third-round selection (85th overall) in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft by Anaheim, Sidorov moved into a tie for the Gulls’ scoring lead with 17 points (eight goals, nine assists). He’s proven scorer after registering 50 goals and 88 points in 66 games for Saskatoon in the Western Hockey League (major junior hockey).
The Gulls improved to 8-12-1-2 during the points spurt to move closer to playoff contention. The top seven teams in the 10-team Pacific Division qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs. The Gulls trailed the seventh place Tucson Roadrunners (12-10-0-0) by five standings points heading to Arizona for two games (Monday and Wednesday).
With 49 games remaining on the Gulls’ regular season schedule, there’s plenty of time to talk about the playoffs later. The San Diego team appears to be developing an identity that should take care of any post-season aspirations.
That’s a critical development since the team’s 4-12-1-1 start to the season.
“We’re starting to play to an identity here, where guys are starting to figure that out and just being hard to play against,” Nesterenko said. “We have a lot of young guys on the team. We’re only 20 games into the year, so still kind of finding their groove, knowing what it takes to play at this level. Our identity is being hard to play against, finishing every hit, getting pucks in. When we do that every night, it’s going to get us results, like we’re witnessing. So, hopefully, we can keep it going here.”
