It’s win or go home for the Wave now

Forget about Game 7, Game 5 or Game

3.

When the Milwaukee Wave and Baltimore Blast meet Friday in Baltimore in the MASL’s Eastern Conference Finals, it’ll be Game 1 and Only.

“My feeling is we have two options: win or die,” Wave goalkeeper Rafael Dias said after practice Wednesday.

“For sure, everyone here wants to win; I know everyone there wants to win. Let’s see who can make less mistakes, who can put more passion and also put more quality on the field and handle this game.”

The quirky MASL playoff format included divisional series of two games plus a mini-game if necessary, and then a single game for each conference final and a single game for the league title.

Making the Wave-Blast meeting quirkier yet is that the playing surface at Towson University’s SECU Arena where the Blast plays its home games is about three-quarters the size of most fields in the league.

“It’s tighter spacing so the game is going to be more physical, much faster,” said Max Ferdinand, who had four goals and four assists in the Wave’s 9-8 and 8-7 victories over the Cedar Rapids Rampage in the divisional round.

Milwaukee and Baltimore split games in February at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, and then the Blast won at home to take the season series.

“As the game goes on you adjust to it, but obviously the last game we adjusted a little too late,” said Ferdinand, who spent six seasons with the Blast. “Hopefully we can start right off the bat so we don’t go down by three goals so we can settle in quicker than last time.”

The six-time champion Wave and eight-time champion Blast finished the regular season with identical 17-5 records, so the Blast’s 2-1 head-to-head edge gave Baltimore the higher seed and home-field advantage.

“Your mental quickness, your mental focus, you just can’t turn off. Because the moment you do, you know what? The ball’s in the back of your net,” Wave coach Giuliano Oliviero said.

“At this point in the season, in the playoffs, your defense, your effort to get back behind the ball, your effort to block shots, we’ve got to bring it up one, two more notches. On the offensive side, we feel confident. We like the players we have in the attack, and we feel they’re capable of breaking Baltimore down.”

The Wave’s Ian Bennett finished the regular season ranked second in the league in goals (50) and points (64), Ferdinand had the most assists (31) and the team scored 48 more goals than it allowed. Baltimore had a plus- 35 goal differential.

Dias has gone 3-0 in net while filling in for Josh Lemos, who suffered a shoulder injury in the second-last game of the season. Lemos, who on Wednesday was named to the all-MASL second team, is ready to go again.

Whoever the goalkeeper is Friday, he’ll be plenty busy on the short field – like a duck in a shooting gallery. And according to Dias, that’s not all bad.

“Before the game you try to make your body warm and prepare yourself for the game,” he said. “And if the game is keeping active, it’s better for us because sometimes we stay 5, 8 minutes without saving any balls. Then sometimes the balls are coming. You’ve got to be a little bit cold in this time. So if you always be in contact with the ball, making some saves, of course it’s better.”