Lizards on verge of MLL playoff berth

When the Long Island Lizards fell to 2-5 on July 1, head coach Jim Mule could reassure himself with the recollection that they'd been there before.

Just a year ago, actually -- the Lizards lost five of their first seven games before reeling off five wins in a row, propelling the team to the Major League Lacrosse championship game.

Some parallels to this year could be drawn: the Lizards had won three in a row before a loss to Denver last Saturday . Now at 5-6, the team faces Hamilton with the playoffs on the line this Saturday at Shuart Stadium. Long Island can qualify if it beats Hamilton by more than six goals, or if Chesapeake (6-5) loses to Denver (6-5). Both Chesapeake and Denver have earned a playoff berth already.

Being in this position seemed improbable a few weeks ago. But that was before a string of strong performances by goalie Drew Adams and a midseason trade for veteran attacker John Grant Jr. jumpstarted the Lizards. Like last season, attacker Tim Goettelman said, it took some time for the team to find its chemistry.

"It's déjà vu all over again," Goettelmann said. "It's sort of us. After the All-Star game, we sort of find our team, our lineup. Our roster has jelled offensively and defensively."

The acquisition of Grant, a two-time league MVP, bolstered an offense that was averaging 11 goals a game but relied heavily on Farmingdale's Matt Danowski and the 33-year-old Goettelmann. The offseason loss of Zach Greer, who opted not to re-sign, left the attack corps depleted.

"We needed a guy that was going to be a scoring option," general manager Casey Hilpert said. "[Now] it's a really hard attack to stop."

With the lefthanded Grant drawing attention away from Danowski and Goettelmann, the Lizards are 4-3 and have averaged 12.4 goals per game.

"Half this league is about chemistry," said Danowski, who leads the team with 22 goals. "We're finally starting to develop some."

The other catalyst appears to be Adams, who has made at least 15 saves in each of his past four games, including a career-high 24 in a win over Boston on July 16. His steadiness in net has allowed the offense to find easy opportunities scoring in transition.

Now the team hopes its run hasn't come too late. Mule said he believes his team is capable of winning a championship, and the sluggish start was frustrating.

"You don't want to start in a hole, 2-5," Mule said. "We had a lot of guys with commitments, some guys with injuries, so we struggled through the beginning part of the season until we got everybody back. That's just the way it went."

For Goettelmann, Saturday's game could be the last of his 11-year standout career. While the league's all-time leading goal scorer wouldn't say definitively that he plans to retire, he said that's where he's leaning.

"I'm going to look at it that way," said Goettelmann, 33. "That I have 60 minutes of my career left."