The San Diego Seals and the Toronto Rock returned to the Electric Factory for game two of the NLL Semifinals with the future of both their seasons hanging in the balance. Still fuming after a 14-12 loss to the Rock in game one, a win meant a third chance at finals while a loss would spell the end of their season.

The Seals didn’t wait around. Although Toronto’s Challen Rogers was the first to score two minutes into the game, the Rock wouldn’t break the Seals’ defenses again until halfway through the third period.

Meanwhile, the Seals’ Dylan Watson got straight to work on the offense. Watson evened the score at 7:36 with an assist from Zach Currier and Ben McIntosh, firing a bullet straight in the net to put snake eyes on the board. Three minutes later, Watson launched another past Toronto keeper Nick Rose, ending the first period 2-1.

“We’ve been talking about this all year long, and preparing ourselves for this moment in this league the way the playoff format is,” head coach Patrick Merrill said. “It’s about getting hot at the right time and coming together at the right time.”

If Merrill was looking for “hot,” then Cameron Dunkerly was piping. The Seals’ backup keeper stepped up to the plate since their usual backstop, Christopher Origlieri, was placed on the Injured Reserve List with an upper body injury that occurred during game one of the playoffs. Having appeared in 18 games and played 135 minutes this season, it was Dunkerly’s first shot at a full game with the Seals.

“We’re a team right in every sense of the word, and we’re gonna play as hard as we can for each other,” Merrill said. “And if one guy goes down, we’re confident another guy can step up.”

In the rock-solid 11-6 win over Toronto, San Diego’s keeper made a total of 31 saves and faced 35 shots. Backed up by an incredible defensive unit, Dunkerly held the Rock scoreless for 36 minutes straight: from two minutes into the first until 11 minutes into the third.

The Seals were on fire and nothing could put them out—during the dominant second and third periods, the Seals added six more goals to the tally. Wes Berg, Zach Currier and James Barclay scored a goal apiece, with Barclay’s point coming straight off a save from Dunkerly. Watson scored his third goal in style, diving across the front of the Toronto keeper and reintroducing the ball to the net.

“He’s a born goal scorer, it’s in his blood. He’s a winner,” Merril said.

Watson added, “The playoffs is a different ball game, so you got to do things a little bit dirtier, get to the areas on the floor that are hard.”

The Seals went into the fourth period with an 8-2 advantage and didn’t back down for a second, matching the Rock’s four goals (CJ Kirst, Mark Matthews, Owen Hiltz and Chris Boushy) with three of their own (Connor Robinson, Watson and Elijah Gobrecht).

Watson’s fourth goal was yet another sneaky dive from behind the goal where Rose couldn’t see him. The Rock challenged the goal for a possible crease violation, but the officials’ call was clear: “The shooter was completely clean.”

What the relatively low score doesn’t reveal is the fire of the match—22 total penalties were dished out, including two brawls and five ejections. The tensions reached their first peak with 4:02 left on the board in the second period, when the Seals’ Trent DiCicco and Toronto’s Chris Boushy got physical.

“A couple hot heads have prevailed there a little bit, but we just needed to reset,” Watson said. “Find our groove, just keep even keel and just keep going forward.”

Beyond hot heads, there were also hot hands. With 5:48 left in the fourth period, Brad Kri and Tre Leclaire started throwing fists, and Leclaire lost his helmet before the officials ran to pull them apart. Distracted by the fight in the middle of the field, though, the officials missed Wes Berg throwing down Billy Hostrawser in defense of his teammate.

“Wes is amazing. He stands up for everybody, and we know that he’s got everybody’s back,” Dunkerly said. “To see him step up and do something like that cemented the way the rest of the game was going, and really helped us finish it.”

Berg and Leclaire were both ejected for misconduct as a result, and Toronto’s Hostrawer, Kri and Elijah Gash were also shown the exit for game misconduct. The aggression defined the rest of the match, and the game ended with penalties to Currier and Josh Jubenville for roughing.

“We want to continue to chase our best game, and we’re gonna have to make some adjustments, that’s just part of it,” Merrill said. “But we also want to ride the feeling that we have in our room right now and carry that [into next weekend].”

The San Diego Seals and the Toronto Rock are headed back to Toronto on May 9 at 4:00 p.m. for round three with everything to play for.