Mohegan — New England Black Wolves head coach Glenn Clark let out a slight sigh before taking questions after Sunday’s National Lacrosse League game against the Georgia Swarm.

It was one of those days.

The Black Wolves had won three-in-a-row prior to Sunday’s game to both pull their season from the brink of oblivion and give themselves a shot at the playoffs.

The Black Wolves rallied back from an early five-goal deficit against defending champion Georgia and tied the game with three seconds left before halftime.

Georgia showed how fleeting momentum can be as it scored four of the next five goals on its way to a 16-11 win in the regular season finale for both teams before 6,158 fans at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“(Lacrosse is) a game of mistakes, and we’ve been better at managing those mistakes over the last little bit (of the season),” Clark said, “but sometimes a reminder is a not a bad thing.

“So we got slapped tonight.”

Not all was lost because New England (9-9) qualified for the playoffs before it took the field thanks to the Colorado Mammoth. They beat the Toronto Rock late Saturday, 19-15, to get the Black Wolves a playoff berth.

New England could’ve won the Eastern Division and earned a first-round bye had it beaten Georgia.

Instead, the Black Wolves will play at the second-seeded Rochester Knighthawks on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“It was a roller-coaster game and kind of a microcosm of our season,” New England’s Kevin Crowley said about the game. “I can’t really pinpoint one thing or another why it happened.”

Georgia, which had won at home Saturday night, won the East and the top seed. Lyle Thompson had four goals and four assists for the Swarm (10-7) and Mike Poulin stopped 41 of 52 shots.

Stephan Leblanc had two goals and five assists for New England and Kyle Buchanan added four goals and two assists.

Crowley had two goals to finish with a league-high 51, the most ever by a player in a Black Wolves uniform. He also had two assists.

Jordan MacIntosh’s short-handed goal gave Georgia a 5-0 lead with four minutes, 36 seconds left in the first quarter.

Oddly enough, the Black Wolves had far more chances to score in the first half but couldn’t convert. They had a 26-to-15 edge in shots with 6:26 left in the half, but trailed, 7-4.

“We hit a bunch of pipes,” Crowley said. “We hit the goalie probably more than the pipes, too. We need to obviously shoot better early on and not let them get a lead.”

New England’s Colton Watkinson scored with three seconds left in the half to tie the game at 7.

“I would’ve thought we’d have energy,” Clark said about the late goal. “We battled back and got ourselves back into the mix and I felt good going into the second half. We sort of weathered a bit of a storm.

“Then it was just chip away, chip away, chip away, chip away (by the Swarm), and we couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

Thompson scored on a penalty shot to give Georgia a 10-8 edge with 4:46 left in the third quarter. Jordan Hall followed with back-to-back goals.

“We’re a team that’s faced adversity all season,” Crowley said. “Playing on the road, I don’t think that’s something in our locker room that we’re bummed out about.

“We’re embracing the challenge like we have all season, and hopefully (we’ll) rise to the occasion.”

n.griffen@theday.com