The New York Atlas Are PLL Champions of the World For The First Time In Franchise History
Evan Bernstein. Getty Images.It was only a matter of time before this New York Atlas team got their hands on a championship. You can go ahead and thank a brutal 2023 season for putting together one of the most loaded rosters we've ever seen. After only winning 2 games in all of 2023, it ended up with them being able to draft Connor Shellenberger and Liam Entenmann in the 1st round of the 2024 Draft. The best player in college lacrosse over the last decade, and the best goalie in college lacrosse possibly ever. You add those two guys to a roster that already has Jeff Teat, who is one of the best players on the planet? And also the best faceoff guy of all-time in Trevor Baptiste? You look up and down the Atlas roster, and you see superstar after superstar after superstar.
Jeff Teat was the MVP of the league in 2024. Connor Shellenberger was the MVP of the league in 2025. It almost feels like cheating that they could both be on the same team at the same time.
You can play perfect defense against these guys, and they're still going to find ways to murder you.
Even when you make a ridiculously athletic play for what would be a goal against any other goalie on planet Earth, Liam Entenmann finds a way to shut the door.
I mean what are we even doing here? This is sickening.
And after a gruesome injury to Xander Dickson, the Atlas had a few other guys step up to be the biggest difference maker in this game. Because as loaded as the Atlas are with superstars, so were the Denver Outlaws. Shellenberger gets cancelled out by Brennan O'Neill. Teat gets cancelled out by Pat Kavanagh and Jared Bernhardt. Liam Entenmann likely should have been named the Goalie of the Year, but that award went to Logan McNaney. So superstar power was pretty even in this one, but guys like Matt Traynor and Bryan Costabile were the ones who brought it home.
For any fans of lacrosse out there, this was one of the best pro games ever. These dudes were playing nail gun lacrosse from start to finish. This game had some juice right off the bat, and you could tell that both sides had guys on the field who knew how much this game meant when talking about legacy. Big time goals, big time saves, some big time collisions, multiple lead changes. In a season that felt like it was always going to come down to the Atlas and the Outlaws, you also got the feeling that this game was always going to go down to the wire. And we were one insane Brennan O'Neill goal away from heading to overtime. Unbelievable finish to a dominant season out of both these teams.
It stinks this game had to go up against an NFL Sunday, so it probably never got the eyeballs on it that it deserves. Hopefully the PLL schedule shifts starting next year to wrap up before the NFL season started. But I'll tell you this right now that the best sports game of the day already happened, and it was at Sports Illustrated Stadium.