What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas — though the San Diego Seals likely hope they can bring a little bit of their Sin City magic back to Southern California.

The Seals set a new season-high for goals, getting five from Casey Jackson, in a 17-10 beatdown of the Colorado Mammoth at Orleans Arena. It marked the first-ever National Lacrosse League game in Las Vegas.

Jackson also had three assists for a game-high eight points. Jeremy Noble had seven points and Connor Fields and Wesley Berg each notched six.

“That’s just what Casey does,” Seals head coach and general manager Patrick Merrill told SealsLax.com. “For him to find his game after being out for so long is a huge boost for our team. It was a total team effort. Everyone was contributing, and that’s why we put up the number that we did tonight.”

The game also featured the return of Seals superstar Austin Staats, whose 2019 season ended early to a torn ACL. He had one goal and three assists. Rookie goalie Nick Damude earned his second win.

Even with no rooting interest for many fans, the crowd was strong. Attendance was a reported 4,821.

Undefeated No More

It took until the very end of January, but the last undefeated team in the league has finally been handed its first blemish.

Toronto rode dominant first and third quarters and held off a late run to best Halifax, 12-9, pushing the Thunderbirds to 6-1.

Dan Dawson led the way offensively for the Rock with four points, and eight members of the team found the back of the net. Halifax scored four straight in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to as little as two but ran out of time to complete the comeback.

“That was good entertainment for everyone watching,” Rock coach Matt Sawyer told TorontoRock.com. “It was a good performance, a big win and one we needed.”

Making the win even more impressive was who the Rock were without: Tom Schreiber, Adam Jones, Dan Craig, Brandon Slate and Latrell Harris.

Small to the Rescue

Another week, another overtime goal from Corey Small. Unlike last week, when he needed the ball to go off a Colorado defender, this one was rather conventional.

Small fired a quick-stick shot after receiving a cross-crease pass from Dhane Smith to beat Rochester goalie Steve Fryer, giving the Bandits a 16-15 home win in the first game of a renewed intrastate rivalry.

Won it. @CSmall15 | #LetsGoBandits pic.twitter.com/ndu7kOM0qi

— Buffalo Bandits (@NLLBandits) February 1, 2020

“That was about 80% Dhane Smith and 20 percent me,” Small said postgame. “He made the play call on the bench. He told me, ‘Find a lane backside and get your stick open, and I’ll find you.”

The game-ending goal capped a comeback effort launched in the fourth quarter, with Buffalo trailing by two goals with under six minutes remaining. The Bandits needed to equalize twice at 14-14 and 15-15 to force the extra frame.

With the win, the Bandits trail the T-Birds by a half-game in the North standings.

Update From Out East

The Georgia Swarm’s hopes of securing one of the two automatic playoff berths from the East Division got a big boost over the weekend with a pair of results: The Swarm’s own 12-11 win against the Philadelphia Wings, and Vancouver’s 10-6 upset of the previously red-hot New England Black Wolves.

Georgia scored two of the final three goals of its game with the Wings, as Randy Staats accounted for both inside the final four minutes of action. Josh Currier brought Philadelphia back within one with one minute left, but the Wings weren’t able to get an equalizer like they did earlier when they tied the game at 10 after scoring three straight.

Shayne Jackson, who now leads the league with 44 points, led the way with seven.

Vancouver only trailed at 1-0 in a game that saw the Warriors go on a pair of extended scoring runs. Sam Clare kicked off an early four-goal spurt to put the Warriors up 4-1 in the second quarter, and another four-goal run stretching from the third quarter to the fourth quarter put the team up 7-2.

Mitch Jones, Keegan Ball and Clare all had five points. Joe Resetarits was responsible for half of the Black Wolves’ goals, notching a hat trick to go with two assists.

Noteworthy

You may remember Brodie Merrill’s outdoor full-field goal from four years ago when he was playing for the Boston Cannons. Well, the Seals captain was able to accomplish the feat again, this time indoors … Halifax’s Ryan Benesch moved into eighth all-time in career goals … New England’s Joe Nardella scored his first career goal in addition to going 15-17 at the faceoff X against the Warriors … The league hosted its first Team Business Summit in Las Vegas.

MUST WATCH: Brodie Merrill goes 200ft to score an empty-netter with 0:01 remaining in the second quarter. pic.twitter.com/sOgMA8TSmV

— NLL (@NLL) February 2, 2020

Up Next
All times EST

Friday
Buffalo at Vancouver, 10:30 p.m.

Saturday
Colorado at Saskatchewan, 8:30 p.m.
New York at Calgary, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday
Vancouver at Rochester, 2 p.m.
Buffalo at Toronto, 3 p.m.