The Major League Lacrosse playoffs are finally set after one of the tightest finishes to the league in its history. Heading into the final week of the regular season, seven teams were vying for the four playoff seeds. It took several tiebreakers to determine the final four, with all seven of those teams finishing with an 8-6 record.
The Ohio Machine earned the first overall seed after defeating the New York Lizards 22-13 behind a record-breaking ten goal performance of John Grant Jr. The Machine had lost four of their last five heading into that final week, but owning the tiebreaker over the Boston Cannons earned the berth.
Ohio will face off against the Charlotte Hounds, who defeated the Chesapeake Bayhawks 15-13 to earn their first eight win season in franchise history. The Hounds qualify for the post season despite winning just three games last season.
Charlotte came back from trailing 10-5 in the third quarter against the Bayhawks to pull out the victory. The Hounds would score nine of the last 11 goals, with Dylan Donahue and John Haus each scoring three tallies.
New York also makes the playoffs and will face the Denver Outlaws, a team that was dormant in week 15 but had won its final six games to rise from a horrid start to their regular season. Led by standout rookie goaltender Jack Kelly, the Outlaws emerged to qualify for the post season for the tenth time in franchise history, with just 2015 being the only time Denver was not in the MLL playoffs.
Head-to-head matchups and point differential was used to determine the tiebreakers for the seven teams. Despite owning head-to-head victories against several teams, the Rochester Rattlers did not make the playoffs due to point differential being ranked higher than strength of victory overall.
New York is the defending champion, and will head to Fairfield, Connecticut, to face the Outlaws, the 2014 champions. Charlotte qualifies after facing the Outlaws in that 2014 title game, while Ohio was in the MLL semi finals last season.
The Lizards’ Rob Pannell and Paul Rabil finished as the league’s points leaders with 74 and 72 respectively, 12 more than the next leader. Pannell’s 73rd point last night set the record for the most all-time in a season. Tom Schreiber and Marcus Holman of Ohio were the next two, before Atlanta’s Kevin Rice, who tore his ACL this season.
New York led the way with 218 goals scored on the season overall. Ohio was second at 209, and Rochester third at 201. Rochester also gave up the fewest goals this season at 167. Rochester won their last two games of the season against Atlanta and Florida, but had lost two before that to Denver and New York, which cost them in the playoff race.
The Cannons won their final two contests as well, including one against New York, but losing the tiebreakers to Charlotte and Ohio proved costly as they missed the post season for the second time in three years. Boston was led by a surprising two point goal by Justin Turri and another game winner from Kevn Buchnan to top Florida, but tiebreakers prevented the Cannons from a potential rematch with the Lizards.
This is the first season MLL will head to neutral sites for its semi final games after home teams hosted the playoffs for the past two seasons. The winners of the two semi finals will head to Atlanta to determine the league champion for the third straight season.
