The New York Lizards head into the third and final break of the MLL season in good position to make the postseason. Right now, they are third in the MLL standings and are one game behind both the Rochester Rattlers and Denver Outlaws for first place.
The season got off to a great start as the offense looked as good as advertised in a 18-15 win over the Rattlers. However, the Lizards would be up-and-down team the next six games as they went 2-4 over that span. The Lizards have come back in a big way though, as they have rattled off three straight victories over the Charlotte Hounds, Ohio Machine and Florida Launch. At 6-4 the Lizards are starting to look like the team everyone thought they would look like heading into this season.
Leading the way for the Lizards is one of the game’s best players in attackman Rob Pannell. Pannell heads into the break fresh off an eight point effort in the team’s 20-11 win over the Launch. On the season, he has 43 points which ranks him third in the league, three behind leader Casey Powell. While Pannell has been the star on the team, the rest of the attack line, Tommy Palasek and Ned Crotty, have complemented Pannell well as they have 19 and 18 points respectively.
The midfield position is deep, especially with the recent acquisition of Michael Kimmel. Max Seibald and Jo-Jo Marasco both have 20 points while Albert Maione has chipped in with 10 points. Matt Striebel has nine points in seven games and Kimmel has seven points in two games for the Lizards since being acquired from Chesapeake. Defensively, short stick midfielders Steven DeNapoli and brothers Mike and Kevin Unterstein have been great in between the lines in the clearing game and have held their own against opposing offenses.
At the faceoff X, Greg Gurenlian continues to dominate the opposition as he boasts the best faceoff percentage in the league as he has won 60.1 percent of his faceoffs. He is also second in the league in ground balls with 77 of them.
Defensively, the team has also improved as the season has gone along and they boast the league’s third best defense behind the Outlaws and Cannons. Kyle Hartzel is a major reason why, as the LSM has eight points on the season to go along with 39 ground balls. Drew Adams has also been pretty good in net. The Team USA goalie ranks fourth in saves and sixth in both GAA and save percentage. He is also one of three goalies to have played every game of the season so far.
As the season heads into the final four games, the Lizards are in prime position to challenge for a top two seed for MLL Championship Weekend. They have three games remaining against teams that are in the lower half of the standings and end the year with a home game against the Denver Outlaws that could decide who the top seed will be.
