It’s been a very exciting MLL season filled with unexpected wins and losses, and it all comes down to this week. There are two playoff spots and three times vying for those spots. Long Island and Boston are pretty much in a “win and you’re in†situation. The Lizards travel to Canada to take on the last-place Hamilton Nationals. Hamilton has not played well in recent weeks, but would love to play spoiler against the Lizards and knock them out of the playoffs.
Last week, Long Island traveled to Chesapeake and lost to the Bayhawks 13-6. Had they won that game, Boston would have already clinched a spot into the playoffs. Heading into the game this week, Long Island will need to play better than they did last week.
A big reason for the Lizards’ lack of offense was Greg Gurenlian not dominating at the face-off X. Gurenlian has led the league in face-off winning percentages, but had a bad game last week in Chesapeake. He was only able to win 8 of 20 face-offs, which cost the Lizards multiple possessions. If Gurenlian can come out and be back to his normal self, the Lizards will post up way more than just six goals.
The Lizards will also need their veteran offensive stars to step up. No player last week scored more than one goal for Long Island, another big reason for their loss. They need guys like Max Seibald, Brian Langtry and Grant Catalino to score multiple goals and rally the team. Without those guys, everyone else seems to fall flat and play without their usual energy and excitement level.
Drew Adams has been a rock all season for Long Island, and there’s no reason to expect any less from him come Saturday. Hamiltons’ shooters have had trouble finding the goal in recent weeks, and have been forced to take low percentage shots, and if Long Island’s defense can continue to do that then Drew Adams will have no problem stopping them.
The Nationals have no dropped three games in a row, most recently a close 11-9 loss to the Charlotte Hounds last week. The Hounds started off hot, but Hamilton rallied back and nearly had the upset. Only one player had more than one goal for the Nationals last week, and if they want to beat the favored Lizards, that will need to change.
Joe Walters had five points last week; all of which were assists. It’s great to see unselfish play like that, but Hamilton needs Walters to put some shots on cage and score goals. Walters is their highest scorer, and they really need him to produce some goals this week. Fan favorite Cody Jamieson only put up one goal in the loss last week. Jamieson is an exciting player to watch, and can easily put up points but he will need to dig deep if he wants to get past Long Island’s defenders and score for Hamilton.
Hamilton had been playing Scott Rodgers in goal due to a hand injury to Brett Queener, but played Queener last week against the Hounds. Both goalies have been having off-and-on games this year but really need to come up big this week to pull the upset. Queener stopped 12 of 23 shots last week, just above a 50% save percentage. Hamilton needs their defense to step up against Long Island’s tricky attack players if they want Queener or Rodgers to have a good chance to save the ball.
Long Island goes into this game the favorite, but it could easily go either way depending on which teams show up. The Lizards need their offense to produce better than they did last week and Hamilton needs their defense to protect their goalie. The Lizards need this win to secure a playoff spot, so they will have the fire to win. The Nationals need to be ready for that fire and will want to have some water on the sideline to put out that fire and play spoiler to Long Island’s playoff hopes.
