Mohegan — The game was drama-free, all of the excitement reserved for the future.

The New England Black Wolves, playoff bound in the National Lacrosse League, still had one regular-season game remaining Sunday night against the Rochester Knighthawks, one day after the Wolves saw their division title hopes dashed in an untimely loss at Buffalo.

Sunday''s game before 2,895 fans at Mohegan Sun Arena made it two straight losses for the Black Wolves, falling 10-8 to the Knighthawks in a matchup New England played without MVP candidate Shawn Evans and starting goalie Evan Kirk.

Evans was shaken up in Saturday's loss and was rested Sunday as a precautionary measure.

“That's always the tough part,” New England defenseman Bill O'Brien said. “(The game) was for nothing. Yet you still have a couple thousand people in the stands you want to play for. It's go time. They just got the better of us.

“… I like to be an optimist and say we got a lot of losses out of the way.”

Second-seeded New England, one year removed from a 4-14 season, will host the No. 3 Georgia Swarm in the first round of the East Division playoffs at 7 p.m. Friday at Mohegan Sun. Top-seeded Buffalo will receive a bye into the division finals.

New England is in its second season after moving from Philadelphia (who last made the playoffs in 2013) and led by Evans, last year's NLL MVP for Calgary, who has 50 goals and 68 assists this season for 118 points. He is the first player in league history to score 100 or more points in four straight seasons.

Pat Saunders led the offense against Rochester, with two goals and one assist for the Wolves (10-8). Kevin Buchanan had a goal and two assists and backup goalie Tye Belanger made the start and finished with 49 saves.

Dan Dawson had two goals and four assists for Rochester (7-11) and Cody Jamieson two goals and three assists.

“Let's look at the season in its totality,” New England coach Glenn Clark said of message he's leaving his team with as they disperse between now and Friday's playoff appearance. “If you take a step back and look at it, we earned a spot in the playoffs. A lot of it's got to do with what you've done all year.

“The players keep in touch with, I don't know what it is, group chat. But let's just keep it business as usual, sort of keep our preparation and process.”

The Wolves pulled within 6-5 with a goal 21.7 seconds before halftime by Phil Caputo, playing in his first game as a member of the team after being taken by New England in the third round of the 2015 draft. Caputo earned a bear hug from Saunders.

Rochester led throughout the second half, though. Saunders pulled New England within a goal one final time with 9 minutes, 8 seconds remaining on an assist by Crowley, but unable to connect with an equalizer, the Wolves watched as the Knighthawks' Dylan Evans scored with 1:21 to play for the final margin.

New England's 10 wins are tied for the most in franchise history, including the storied Philadelphia teams which won six championships.

“It's my first time in the playoffs, it's a lot of guys' first time,” Saunders said of looking ahead to Friday. “There are some hungry guys in that room.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com