The Swarm and the Rush were the two best teams during the National Lacrosse League regular season, winning their division titles, and now are each a win away from advancing to the Champion’s Cup finals.

Georgia’s 11-8 road win over the Toronto Rock and Saskatchewan’s 18-9 victory over the Colorado Mammoth in Denver last Saturday mean they can advance with home wins this Saturday.

The Swarm are seeking their first appearance in the final in the franchise’s 13 years, while the Rush are aiming for a third consecutive championship.

SWARM 11, ROCK 8

The first half was the Brandon Miller show, as the Rock goalie shut out the NLL’s highest-scoring team by stopping all 14 shots on goal he faced in the first quarter. Toronto led 1-0 after the first and 3-0 early in the second.

The Swarm methodically gained the upper hand. They led 6-4 after Shayne Jackson capped a five-goal run when he scored the second of his two goals at 10:28 of the third quarter despite being crushed to the floor by two Rock checkers. Mike Poulin was doing in the Swarm nets what Miller had done for the Rock in the first half.

“We came out firing, but we didn’t play a full 60 minutes,” Toronto’s Damon Edwards said. “That’s going to expose you, when you don’t play a full 60.”

When Jordan Hall leapt into the crease to put the ball over Miller for his second goal of the night at 10:65 of the fourth, Georgia led 9-6. The Rock then began pulling Miller for an extra attacker. They scored twice but those goals were offset by two empty-net Swarm goals.

“The guys stuck together and kept battling,” said Joel White, who scored two goals, including one of those empty-netters. “We knew our offense would step it up.”

Georgia outshot Toronto 55-47. Lyle Thompson, whose 45 goals helped him win the regular-season scoring title, was held without a goal.

“Just good, tough, team defense,” Edwards said of limiting Thompson. “We’ve been doing that all year.”

Miller made 45 saves in playing well enough to get a W most nights.

“It stings,” he said. “The bottom line is we had to play next weekend anyways. You look at it that way and you go and win the next one and you [force] that 10-minute mini-game. We’ll look back and learn from the mistakes we made, but we’re on to next week now.”

Miller, 38, and Poulin, 32, have had many memorable nights at opposite ends of the floor.

“Pouly had to make some unbelievable saves down the stretch,” Miller said. “I’m happy for Mikey. It’s a lot of fun battling against him. He’s a good competitor.”

The feeling is mutual.

“The year he’s had, with the injury, you root for Brandon,” said Poulin, who finished with 47 saves. “He’s such a great guy.”

Miller missed the first half of the season after offseason hip surgery.

Georgia’s back-end transition runners contributed four goals to Toronto’s one.

“Those energy goals we were getting in transition, they really pumped up the team,” coach Ed Comeau said. “We got a couple of those that really helped.”

“Toronto likes to push the ball, and we wanted to match their intensity,” White said.

Toronto led 80-73 in possession of loose balls.

“Our effort was there,” Rock coach Matt Sawyer said. “It’s more about our execution.”

RUSH 18, MAMMOTH 9

The Rush, leading 9-8 after three quarters, went wild in the fourt, outscoring the Mammoth 9-1. It was 15-8 when Dillon Ward was replaced in the crease after making 53 saves and Alex Buque was sent in to mop up.

Saskatchewan outshot Colorado 57-40 and also led 73-60 in loose ball pickups.

“We just got away from our systems,” forward Jeremy Noble said of his team’s fourth-quarter woes. “It’s a loss, but we’ll be better next week.”

Adam Jones scored six goals and Ben McIntosh four for the defending champs. Mark Matthews scored two goals in once again adroitly orchestrating the Rush attack. Two of his passes directly set up teammates’ goals.

“Mark is such an unselfish player,” Saskatchewan coach and genereal manager Derek Keenan said. “He’s a hard guy to shut down, because he’s so big and strong and skilled. He really doesn’t care who scores. I had him in junior, and he was like that in junior. He’s all about winning.”

As for controlling Matthews, Colorado coach Pat Coyle said Mammoth checkers “did a pretty good job against him and if we limit some of the guys around him that’s a different game.’’

On the back end, Aaron Bold’s fourth-quarter play sealed the deal. Anybody who has watched Bold in big games over the years knows that he is at his best when it matters most, and that was true again on this night. He made 31 saves. It was a light workload compared to what Ward faced.

“He made some tough stops, and he made the stops he’s supposed to make,” Keenan said. “He rose to the occasion for us the last couple of seasons and he did it again. Our defense was good, too. That’s the playoff shutdown defense we’re known for.”

Noble led the Mammoth with four goals. Leading scorer Callum Crawford came up empty on eight shots on goal.

“We played him real hard,” Keenan said. “Jeff Cornwall and Ryan Dilks specifically and a few other guys did a real good job on him. We got in his way. We did a good job on Zack Greer, too.”

“The difference between us winning and losing was their best players were their best players and our best players were not our best players,” Coyle said. “I know Callum is going to come back strong, and we’ll make a couple of adjustments.”

Coyle remains hopeful.

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter if we lost by one or by 10, it’s just a loss,” he said. “They still have to win two to move on. We’re going to go to Saskatchewan, and our goal is to win that game and then win the 10-minute game. It really doesn’t change anything. We’re in this to win it.”

He retains full confidence in Ward, who doesn’t allow a loss to impair his next start.

“I thought he played a pretty good game,” Coyle said. “I know the score doesn’t show it but it was 9-8 after the third quarter. We fell apart in front of him. Goaltending is not a worry for us.”

Going home up 1-0 put a smile on Keenan’s face.

“It’s only one game but it was nice to get the win because it takes a little bit of pressure off. If you lose that game, the energy you have to expend to get to a 10-minute game is worrisome.”

CORBEIL 50-50

The Rush won in Denver without captain Chris Corbeil, who suffered a lower body injury in the last game of the regular season.

“We’ll see how he looks at practice Friday and at the Saturday morning shoot-around,” said Keenan, who rates Corbeil’s chances of dressing for Game 2 at 50-50.

GEORGIA’S D

Georgia’s high-powered offense gets so much attention that stay-at-home defensemen often get ignored. So a shoutout goes to Mitch Belisle, Jason Noble, John Ranagan, Connor Sellars and Alex Crepinsek for their smothering effort in Toronto.

“Our defense was great all night,” Comeau said. “We blocked a lot of shots and got in a lot of passing lanes.”

“They’re on everybody’s hands, real active,” Jordan Hall said. “A lot of those guys were offensive athletes in colleges. We’ve got a really athletic defense. They’re tough to play against. ... Our defense kind of bailed us out until [the offense] could get it going.”

Said Poulin: “At the beginning of the year, we gave up a lot of goals, but down the stretch we held our own and played some good lacrosse.”

REWARDED BY TEAMMATES

Swarm players selected goalie Mike Poulin as their player of the game.

“Pouly played awesome,” Hall said. “He played lights out.”

NO. 13

The Swarm’s Connor Sellars wears No. 13 on his back. Why? When he was growing up in Brampton, Ontario, his favorite athlete was Swedish NHL centre Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sundin wore 13. Sellars began wearing it in minor lacrosse and has continued to do so with the Swarm.

LEFT-SIDE WOES

Six of Toronto’s eight goals were scored by shooters who carry their sticks on their right sides. This continued a season-long trend. The only lefty forward to put a ball behind Poulin was Stephen Leblanc.

“They have a very, very potent offense but, in the three games we’ve played against them now, our defense has been able to match up well against them,” Leblanc said. “It falls on our end of the floor, the offense, to generate some good shots and be able to get them past Poulin.”

SAGGING ATTENDANCE

Air Canada Centre attendance was 7,329. The Rock regular season average was 9,623. There are 18,800 seats.

Georgia’s average was 3,950, according to the league website. Fans who watch games on NLLTV.com swear that is an inflated number. So, it will be interesting to see what the number is this Saturday after a concerted marketing campaign. Infinite Energy Center in Duluth in the Atlanta suburbs has a capacity for lacrosse of 13,000.

“People are viewing the [TV or computer] screen and saying whatever,” Swarm captain Jordan McIntosh responds when asked about home attendance. “The fans are great there and our team does an awesome job [of marketing]. The social media stuff is pretty amazing. We’re confident that if we keep putting this product on the floor, that people will get out and see us. We’re hoping [this Saturday] it’s nice and full.”

Colorado’s regular season average was 14,458. Game 1 attendance was 11,012.

NLL DELAYS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The NLL has announced that there will be for the first time a two-week gap between the end of the division finals and the start of the best-of-three championship series to give teams more time to sell tickets. If it’s a Georgia-Saskatchewan final, as many as 10 players might be further delayed in joining their Major League Lacrosse teams.

Saskatchewan’s Mark Matthews and Matt Hossack are on the roster of the Atlanta Blaze, as is Georgia’s Randy Staats. Georgia’s Mitch Belisle is to join the Boston Cannons. Ben McIntosh of the Rush is listed with the Charlotte Hounds. Jason Noble of the Swarm can join the Chesapeake Bayhawks. Mike Messenger of the Rush and Bryan Cole of the Swarm are on the roster of the Ohio Machine. Joel White and Jordan McIntosh of the Swarm are on the Rochester Rattlers roster.

The PLPA was not alerted to the change beforehand and is analyzing the effects it might have on players. An NLL-PLPA formula pays players a minimum $700 U.S. per playoff game.

HOW RUSH GOT MESSENGER

At the 2014 entry draft, Colorado traded pick 13 and a second-round 2015 pick to Saskatchewan to get the 7 pick and used it to select defenseman Robert Hope.

The Rush used 13 to select goalie Adam Shute. At the 2016 draft, they traded the second-rounder along with pick 9 to Rochester for the Knighthawks’ first-round picks in 2016 and 2018. They used the 2016 first-rounder to select Mike Messenger third overall, and they still have that 2018 first-rounder in their draft bank.

DIVISION FINALS (GAME 2)

Toronto at Georgia, Saturday, 7:05 p.m. ET

Georgia is 7-2 at home this season. One of the losses was to Toronto in overtime, so Swarm players know finishing off the Rock won’t be a walk in the park.

“It’s going to be an even tougher battle,” White said.

“They’re here for a reason,” forward Kiel Matisz said. “They’re a top team in the East, just like us. They’re big on defense, they’ve got great goalies. ... It’s evenly matched. A couple of runs in a game make a difference. We try to limit their runs and get a couple ourselves.”

Toronto players are a determined bunch.

“We have confidence in our group,” Edwards said. “We’re going to go to Georgia with a mindset that we’re going to win.”

Game-day decisions are likely to determine if Brett Hickey of the Rock and Chad Tutton of the Swarm, both of whom got banged up in Game 1, will be fit to suit up for Game 2.

Colorado at Saskatchewan, Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET

The Mammoth, having just lost by nine goals, face the prospect of having to win in Saskatoon’s SaskTel Centre, where the Rush have been a practically unbeatable 8-1 this year.

Dillon Ward, despite being lifted after allowing 15 goals, has the full confidence of his teammates and coaches.

“I thought he played a pretty good game,” Coyle said. “I know the final score doesn’t show it, but it was 9-8 after the third. We fell apart in front of him. Goaltending is not a worry for us.”

In two regular-season trips to Saskatoon, the Mammoth twice lost by one goal. They were beaten in the last minute and in overtime. So Coyle’s crew has played well enough there to believe they can win Game 2.

“For sure,” Coyle said. “As a team, we’re confident we can win wherever. That crowd is exciting to play in front of and represents a great opportunity. I think we’re up to the challenge.”

TIME TRAVEL

May 17, 2008: The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Portland LumberJax 14-13 to win the NLL championship on their home floor in front of 18,690 spectators. In the last second, Bandits goalie Mike Thompson stopped a Peter Jacobs shot to seal the win.

“Michael Thompson had a stellar game in net for us,” coach Darris Kilgour said. “He won us a championship.”

Mark Steenhuis scored five goals and was named MVP. Kevin Dostie scored three and John Tavares two for the Bandits.