While the Philadelphia Wings sit comfortably in first place, their four main challengers shuffled positions in this week's Lacrosse-Network.com Experts Poll.

Philadelphia, made idle this past weekend when winter weather prevented the Toronto Rock from visiting, ranks first for the fourth straight week, but did lose one first-place vote. The Wings drew a total of 95 points this week, including seven nods for the top spot.

Buffalo jumped two spots to second place, earning 86 points and a first-place vote by sending Minnesota to its third straight loss. The Bandits are eleven points of clear of Minnesota, which fell from second place, and San Jose, up from fifth.

Colorado, which lost to the Stealth to mark its own third consecutive defeat, lost sixteen points from last week, sliding to 63 points.

The rest of the rankings went unchanged, except in the last two spots. As predicted a week ago, when Edmonton trailed Chicago by just one point, the Rush have crept out of the cellar and now lead the Shamrox, 13 points to 12.

Our panel of eight experts includes a wide range of top lacrosse minds, including Outsider's Guide writers, players, and coaches. Scoring is on an 12-11-10-etc. basis, so that the maximum score a team can earn is 96 points and the minimum is eight points.

The complete rankings from this week's Experts Poll, with comments (win-loss record through Sunday is in parentheses):

WEEK NINE                                       Pts  Prv
 1. Philadelphia Wings (6-1)                     95    1
    Snowout puts Wings' hot start on pause
 2. Buffalo Bandits (7-4)                        86    4
    Fast becoming Wings' top East challenger
 3. San Jose Stealth (5-3)                       75    5
    Look who's tied for first in the West!
    Minnesota Swarm (6-3)                        75    2
    How to stop this sudden freefall?
 5. Colorado Mammoth (5-3)                       63    3
    (See: Minnesota Swarm)
 6. Toronto Rock (5-3)                           56    6
    Home games vs. NY, EDM upcoming
 7. Rochester Knighthawks (4-4)                  47    7
    Playing in Edmonton for first time ever
 8. Calgary Roughnecks (4-6)                     46    8
    Still digging out from three-game skid
 9. New York Titans (4-5)                        33    9
    Home... Home... where is home?
10. Portland LumberJax (3-7)                     23   10
    May not win again (SJ 3x, COL, PHI, BUF)
11. Edmonton Rush (1-6)                          13   12
    Has the stage to itself on Saturday (ROC)
12. Chicago Shamrox (1-6)                        12   11
    In serious danger of reaching 1-11