The PennZone

PHILADELPHIA - PennZone -- Seven games this past weekend made the National Lacrosse League playoff picture a bit clearer as the Buffalo Bandits clinched the top overall seed and five teams have punched their tickets into the NLL Chase for the Championship, which begins with quarterfinal play May 5-9. The Toronto Rock (12-5, 2^nd East, clinched quarterfinal home game), Colorado Mammoth (10-7, 1^st West), San Diego Seals (9-7, tied-2nd West) and Calgary Roughnecks (9-7, tied-2nd West) have also earned playoff spots.

Seven clubs are still in the running to earn the final three spots. Under the new expanded playoff format announced this season, the top four teams in the East, top three teams in the West and one wild card team with the next best record qualify. Halifax (9-7, 3^rd East), Georgia (8-8, 4^th East), Albany (8-9, t-5^th East), Philadelphia (8-9, t-5^th East), New York (6-10, 6^th East), Panther City (7-9, 4^th West) and Saskatchewan (6-10, 5^th West) can still qualify in the final two regular season weekends. For the full standings to date visit https://www.nll.com/standings/.

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The Roughnecks, by virtue of Halifax's loss to Toronto on Saturday, secured the Alterna Cup, signifying supremacy among the league's Canadian franchises. Calgary's hard-fought 15-13 win over the Vancouver Warriors brought it to 6-1 in those contests.

Week 21 brings several important matchups in the playoff race, for seeding and/or qualification, including Calgary at Rochester, Friday, 7 p.m. ET; Halifax at New York, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET; Georgia at Panther City, Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPNU); and San Diego at Saskatchewan, Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET, in the Sports Interaction Game of the Week on TSN.

Buffalo also announced that its quarterfinal home game will be played on Saturday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Toronto's home game is still TBD. The playoff schedule is as follows:

• Quarterfinals, May 5-9, Single-elimination
• Conference Finals, May 12-16, May 19-23, May 26-30 (if necessary) Best-of-three
• NLL Finals, June 2-6, June 9-13, June 16-20 (if necessary) Best-of-three

Media partners ESPN and TSN will broadcast every playoff game. TSN and ESPN broadcast schedules for the quarterfinal round will be announced after the pairings are set. Follow along at NLL.com for clinching scenarios as they develop.

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