The Premier Lacrosse League has had a flair for the dramatic all season. The final week before the playoffs is no exception.

Three teams enter the last regular-season weekend tied at 4-5 – Archers, Atlas and Redwoods – while only two will make it to the postseason.

Coincidentally, none of the three will match up, with each squad instead playing a team whose spot in the playoffs is all but wrapped up. Archers meet Whipsnakes, Redwoods duel with Chrome and Atlas squares up with Chaos.

“It’s kind of crazy that it’s all coming down to this weekend,” Redwoods attackman Jules Heningburg said. “We’re looking at it like a do-or-die now. We have an opportunity to get into the playoffs if we take care of business and some things go our way.”

All three teams can get into the Battle for the Crown with a win and a loss by one of the other two teams. If it isn’t that clean, the league turns to its first tiebreaker, goal differential. In that aspect, this battle was turned on its head last weekend in Hamilton.

Atlas’ chances seemed grim as the only team in the PLL with a negative goal differential before last weekend, but a disastrous performance from the Woods put the team back into a good position. Whipsnakes shellacked Redwoods in the most lopsided game in the history of the league, 17-4, to suddenly push Redwoods to the bottom of the league in goal differential.

“To kind of have things take a huge turn in one game, it definitely hurts a lot more than a normal loss,” Heningburg said. “To have that go that way and have it affect the playoff possibilities, it’s definitely not an easy pill to swallow but it happens. You’ve just got to learn from it.”

Entering the final week, Archers is the only one of the group with a positive differential of three. Atlas is negative-10, while Redwoods is negative-13.

While its hill is steep, Redwoods on paper has the easiest opponent in Chrome, a team already eliminated from the playoffs. Still, Chrome has shown in recent weeks it isn’t a team you should look past, having put up at least 14 goals in four of its last five games. A 20-16 win against Whipsnakes in San Jose shows it can play with anyone.

Redwoods are the only team of three to have beaten its opponent in a previous matchup this season. The Woods were powered by an eight-point performance from Heningburg in a 13-11 victory against Chrome at Baltimore’s Homewood Field in Week 4.

Atlas lost to Chaos 18-13 in New York, while Archers fell to Whipsnakes 11-10 in Chicago.

Archers and Atlas’ opponents are both locked into top-two seeds in the playoffs, which are given extra value since the first-round loser gets a second chance at working its way through the bracket. There isn’t much to play for either team, though, since the incentive to finish first and second is the same.

Atlas was an inch away from elimination last week when the Bulls met Chrome, but now have a decent chance at a second life.

“We’re still in it,” Atlas faceoff man Trevor Baptiste said in his postgame interview last week. “It’s exciting. We’ve just got to take care of business next week.”

According to the PLL, Archers have an 85.3 percent chance at making the playoffs, while Atlas is 75.5 percent and Redwoods is 39.2 percent. That shows how much things can change in a week, as Atlas was at 11 percent and Redwoods at 81.6 percent.

If teams end up tied in score differential, the next tiebreaker is head-to-head record. If that is tied as well, they turn to head-to-head goal differential and then total goals.