The Calgary Roughnecks will enter the National Lacrosse League playoffs the same way they've entered the past five weeks of the season -- as the consensus pick as the league's best team in the Lacrosse-Network.com Experts Poll.

Calgary, which will not have to play away from the Saddledome until next season, earned 83 points in this week's voting, including six first-place votes.

The Roughnecks finished seven points ahead of newly-crowned Eastern Division champion New York. The Titans (76 points) moved past Buffalo (71 points) for second place in the rankings.

Boston (64 points) and Portland (55 points) round out the top five, as they did last week, while the rest of the rankings got jumbled as a result of Week Sixteen's action.

Rochester (46 points) and San Jose (43 points) each moved up a spot at the expense of Philadelphia (35 points), which blew its shot at the final Eastern Division playoff spot by losing at Rochester, 11-8.

Our panel of seven experts includes a wide range of top lacrosse minds, including Outsider's Guide writers, players, and coaches. Scoring is on an 12-11-10-etc. basis, so that the maximum score a team can earn is 84 points and the minimum is seven points.

This is the last Experts Poll until after the NLL Championship Game. The final 2008 Lacrosse-Network.com Experts Poll will appear during the week of 18 May.

The complete rankings from this week's Experts Poll, with comments (win-loss record through Sunday is in parentheses):

WEEK SIXTEEN                                    Pts  Prv
 1. Calgary Roughnecks (12-4)                    83    1
    Road to Cup goes through Cowtown
 2. New York Titans (10-6)                       76    3
    East title was case of highway robbery
 3. Buffalo Bandits (10-6)                       71    2
    Week 16 loss makes title run much tougher
 4. Boston Blazers (10-6)                        64    4
    Excellent showing by first-year team
 5. Portland LumberJax (9-7)                     55    5
    Played well in meaningless loss (CAL)
 6. Rochester Knighthawks (7-9)                  46    7
    Saw a chance, took it, in the playoffs
 7. San Jose Stealth (7-9)                       43    8
    Played poorly in meaningless loss (at TOR)
 8. Philadelphia Wings (7-9)                     35    6
    Say good night, Lindsay
 9. Colorado Mammoth (7-9)                       29   10
    Halted slide just in the nick of time
10. Minnesota Swarm (6-10)                       21    9
    Hey, didn't you used to be a contender?
11. Toronto Rock (6-10)                          15   11
    Finished on a positive note
12. Edmonton Rush (5-11)                          8   12
    Stayed in contention to the very end