The Toronto Rock, Saskatchewan Rush and Calgary Roughnecks punched their tickets, while Rochester, Philadelphia and Vancouver cling to life. The playoff picture is starting to get clearer entering the final four weeks of the season.

Keeping things interesting out East was Sunday’s lone game, a 13-8 desperation victory by the Knighthawks at Mohegan Sun Arena. The triumph, which ended an eight-game losing streak for the K-Hawks, was fueled by a five-point performance from Mike Burke and kept the team’s slim hopes at a playoff game alive.

“We just try to come in and work as hard as we can every night,” Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen told knighthawks.com. “Tonight, we were rewarded for our hard work.”

Rochester moved ahead by two late in the second quarter, but New England responded and tied the game at 6 three and a half minutes into the third and again at 7 two and a half minutes later.

From there, Rochester ended the game on a 6-1 run featuring two goals from Burke and one each from Cody Jamieson, Kyle Jackson, Jake Withers and Chris Boushy.

New England had a shot at eliminating both Rochester and Philadelphia with a win.

There are now three teams in each conference locked in for the playoffs following this week’s results – Buffalo, Georgia and Toronto in the East and San Diego, Saskatchewan and Calgary in the West.

Colorado is close to joining the group, needing just one win or one loss from the Warriors. New England is still a win away from playoff glory. For the Black Wolves to miss the postseason, they’d need to lose out and one of Rochester or New England to win out.

Just keep swimming

San Diego stayed two steps ahead of Saskatchewan for the first seed in the West, backed by eight point-performances from three players in a 16-9 victory against Calgary.

It was a memorable night for Dan Dawson, who with his two goals and six assists became the first right-handed player to score 500 career goals. He’s the fifth overall, joining John Tavares, John Grant Jr., Gary Gait and Colin Doyle.

“My 500th goal is a testament to the coaches I’ve been playing for for the past 18 years,” Dawson told SealsLax.com. “I’ve been surrounded by teammates who have made my job easy. I’m lucky to have been able to do it with this group tonight.”

San Diego took a 3-2 lead 11 minutes in the game and never trailed again, expanding the lead to seven goals three times. Kyle Buchanan had four goals and four assists and Garrett Billings notched two goals and six assists.

Rush keep up

The Rush kept pace with the Seals with a 12-9 victory against Vancouver, putting the Warriors chances of making the playoffs in their first season in the city on life support in the process. Mark Matthews dished out seven assists in addition to his goal and Robert Church had a seven-point performance as Saskatchewan took a dominating 10-2 lead in the first half.

“I thought we were really really physical in the first half and took it to them tempo-wise,” Rush coach and general manager Derek Keenan said.

Vancouver shut down the Rush offense in the second, allowing only two goals, but wasn’t able to get the offense going enough to fully fight back.

“We got a little complacent I think,” Church said. “We got into some penalties. … That kind of slows us down and takes away our momentum.”

Rock’s sigh of relief

Toronto’s postseason clinching victory wasn’t nearly as smooth as it appeared it would be in the closing minutes of the third quarter. The Rock held a 11-6 lead after Dan Craig scored with 1:42 left in the frame, but the Philadelphia Wings responded with a four-goal run to cut the deficit to one with about seven minutes remaining in regulation.

“Give Philadelphia some credit there,” Toronto Rock coach Matt Sawyer told the media postgame. “They certainly hit some shots. They’re a tough team to defend.”

Unfortunately for Philadelphia, they’d only match Toronto’s output of one goal the rest of the way, falling 12-11.

“Any team’s first goal is to try and qualify for the playoffs,” Sawyer said. “Not the prettiest, but that seems to be our script. We’ve been in a lot of those one-goal games, so maybe it’s fitting.”

Week 17 Preview

Bandits at Rock
Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET

A Buffalo victory would clinch the season series for the Bandits and ensure they finish higher than Toronto in the final standings. These same teams met last week, with the Bandits dragging themselves out of an early hole to win 8-6. Toronto put up 17 on Buffalo early in the year, but the Bandits haven’t allowed more than 11 goals in six of the last seven weeks.

Seals at Black Wolves
Saturday, 7 p.m. ET

As New England opens the weekend with one of its two games there are once again questions about Callum Crawford’s availability. After having his suspension reduced from five games to one, he returned only to lay out another high hit. This time he got up with both his hands into Withers’ head after the K-Hawk checked his stick out of his hands.

Roughnecks at Wings
Saturday, 12 p.m. ET

Calgary may be locked in but there are still seeding implications as it plays its final three games. Eight of the Wings’ 11 losses are by two or less goals.

Seals at Black Wolves
Saturday, 7 p.m. ET

Even if New England clinches on Friday, it still will have a chance to catch the Rock in the standings so the motivation won’t dissipate. San Diego is already assured of going at least .500 in its first season in the league.

Rock at Knighthawks
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET

These teams only play twice this season despite being division rivals. Toronto won the first meeting on March 16, a close 15-13 result at the Scotiabank Centre.

Rush at Mammoth
Saturday, 9 p.m. ET

This is the first of two meetings between Saskatchewan and Colorado in the final month of the season. The Rush won the first meeting between these teams, 9-7, back on Feb. 22. Colorado has won three straight and is now only a half game back of Calgary in the standings.