Last week was a start. The New England Black Wolves, finishing the regular season with three straight road games, went to Toronto and fell just short against the Rock with a 13-12 loss.

This week, the Wolves head to Buffalo (7:30 p.m., Saturday, KeyBank Center).

All of it, the road work against the top teams in the National Lacrosse League's Eastern Division, is in preparation for one thing. New England (8-8), will be the No. 4 seed in the East when the playoffs commence at the beginning of May, handing the Black Wolves a one-game playoff against the No. 1 seed on the road.

"We're excited to get back at it this week against another good team, a playoff team," New England coach Glenn Clark said in a conference call this week. "We're going into a tough place. We showed (at Toronto), we certainly can win and compete on the road. There were some definable mistakes we need to clean up, but we were in the mix, certainly, to win the game.

"What we wanted to get out of this last little stretch is to measure ourselves against the best teams in the league."

Against Toronto, Stephan Leblanc had two goals and six assists and Reilly O'Connor, Joe Resetarits, Tyler Digby and Callum Crawford also had two goals each. Leblanc notched his 300th career goal.

Now, Buffalo will present yet another challenge.

The Bandits (12-4), currently in first place in the East by half a game, are battling Georgia (12-5) and Toronto (11-6) to try to earn one of the top two spots in the division in order to earn home field for the first round of the playoffs.

Buffalo beat New England 15-5 on Jan. 27 at Mohegan Sun. The Bandits, led by Dhane Smith with 91 points and former Black Wolves star Shawn Evans with 86, are also 6-2 at home, while the Wolves are 1-6 on the road. Buffalo is coming off a bye week.

"We're trying to get our game in shape and straighten out some of our nuances," Clark said. "We want to be hitting on all cylinders when the playoffs start. Wins, obviously you need and they're nice, but you can play well and lose or play 'eh' and win. (Right now), we want to play well."