Chill clinch PDL playoff berth with Tuesday win

A win and they’re in.

The Thunder Bay Chill now know the task ahead of them – beat the St. Louis Lions Tuesday on neutral turf and they secure an eighth straight Premier Development League playoff berth.

The Chill, despite a mediocre 6-6-1 record and forced to play their final home game in Fairbault, Minn., c compromise to the league after the Chicago Inferno folded, are in this position after third-place St. Louis could only manage a tie Saturday night against the Des Moines Menace.

Thunder Bay is three points up with one game to go. The Lions have three games left, but a loss on Tuesday would mean the best they can do is a tie.

With a loss, the Lions would split the season series, the first tiebreaker. The second, league wins, would go to the Chill under that scenario. They would have seven wins and the Lions, with two games remaining at the point would only have four and a maximum total of six if they won out from there.

“This is incredible,” Chill coach Tony Colistro said in a release. “During the last seven years, if you had more than two losses in our division, you did not have  chance at the playoffs. This year we may get in with six or seven losses.

“I am not happy about our record this year, but I am both hopeful and excited that we may make the playoffs.”

The Chill’s hopes aren’t dashed with a tie, though they’d need help from the Lions, who also have games against WSA Winnipeg and Springfield remaining on their schedule. A win in either game under that scenario by the Lions and the Chill would be eliminated.

A Lions win on Tuesday automatically eliminates the Chill, as St. Louis would own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The PDL playoffs are scheduled to open the weekend of July 25-27, almost assuredly on the road.