With files from Noah Guest.
The Toronto Rock were yelling with jubilation at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S. on Sunday night, as they defeated the Halifax Thunderbirds 12-7 to win the franchise’s seventh NLL championship and the first since 2011.
The Rock were ecstatic, hugging each other tightly, screaming and crying. As they left the field, they were running to their dressing room with little pieces of the cut-up net dangling from their championship hats. For most of the players, it is their first time winning the championship. Toronto has been a great team for a long time, but ran into the Buffalo Bandits, who swept them in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 NLL semifinals. Then they missed the playoffs last year. But a bounce back season, helped by the emergence of four fantastic rookies in Sam English, CJ Kirst, Owen Hiltz and Hugh Kelleher propelled them to become champions.
“We’ve been on the doorstep for so long, and last year aside, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, but this is what we envisioned in the off-season when we had some tough conversations and brought the core back,” said long-time Rock goaltender Nick Rose, who won his first championship in his 16-year career. “Obviously, we made some incredible draft picks and brought everybody together, and it was a chip on our shoulder all season long. It is what we wanted and envisioned, and for it to become a reality is a dream come true.”
“The way this team is made up and shout out to Jamie (Dawick, the Rock’s owner and general manager), it is such a special group, the guys that have been here and gone through the fire and topping it off like this. It is not something I’m going to feel for a bit here. I’m kind of numb to this feeling, and it’s truly amazing,” said Toronto’s captain Challen Rogers, who won his first championship in his ninth season.
Even with all the post-pandemic success, the Rock had a difficult season last year, finishing second last in the league. However, they had draft capital on their side. In 2022, Toronto traded Rob Hellyer to Las Vegas for their 2024 and 2025 first-round picks. They used the 2024 pick to select Sam English second overall and the 2025 pick to select CJ Kirst first overall. They traded Mitch De Snoo and Chris Corbiel to Philadelphia last season for their 2025 first-round pick, which they used to draft Owen Hiltz third overall. They used their own 2025 second-round pick on Hugh Kelleher.
The rookies rejuvenated the team this season, and they were brilliant in the finals. Kirst scored five goals and seven points and Hiltz scored five goals and eight points. Kelleher scored three points, picked up 12 loose balls and was excellent defensively. English scored seven points, picked up 19 loose balls and was effective defensively. English was named the NLL Finals Most Valuable Player, the first rookie to do so since John Tavares in 1992.
Adding them to an already deep team made the Rock formidable this year. Rose is the 2024 Goaltender of the Year, Rogers is a two-time Transition Player of the Year, Mark Matthews was the 2018 Most Valuable Player, Latrell Harris was the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, and Brad Kri has been nominated for Defensive Player of the Year in three of the past four seasons.
“They’re rookies by designation right now, but they have 22 or 23 games under their belt. We threw them into the fire, and they got better each and every game throughout the season, just like our team continues to build,” said the Rock’s head coach, Matt Sawyer. “It’s just a perfect combination. This is a group that has won a lot over the past four or five years. Last year was not one of them, but to be able to put that rookie class we have together with our nucleus of veterans that we have has formed a special team, and they continued to get better each and every time out.”
“It’s the guys that have been here, it is Chal (Rogers), it’s Mark (Matthews), it’s Rosie (Nick Rose), Billy (Hostrawser) Brad (Kri), I could go on for an hour about what those guys have done for us,” said English. “They make it fun to be in that locker room and to get better and to play and come ready to go, and they have been unbelievable for us, and it is one hundred per cent them. We have a good crew of young dudes that have experienced this together and are looking to keep going and keep getting better, and it is 100 per cent thanks to these guys. The old dudes, the dudes that have done it before.”
The scary thing for the league is that Toronto has more young talent coming. Toronto used its own pick in 2025 to draft transition player Ty English, Sam’s brother, second overall. Ty is playing his final NCAA season with the University of North Carolina, but is expected to suit up for the Rock next year. Toronto also traded Nick Rose last season in a package that has Calgary’s 2026 first-round pick coming the other way. Calgary finished second last this year, so the pick will be a high one once again. Rose returned to the Rock as a free agent in the offseason.
However, it was heartbreak for the Thunderbirds, losing the championship at home.
“Words don’t really mean anything right now,” said Halifax’s captain, Cody Jamieson, when asked to describe how he was feeling post-game. “The feelings are a little bit of everything right now, anger, sadness, disappointment, I got some regret. Words mean nothing, it is the feeling.”
The Thunderbirds had a remarkable season. They were at serious risk of missing the playoffs after winning three out of their first 10 games. It took a winner-take-all game against the Ottawa Black Bears in the final game of the season for them to get into the playoffs. They were hit with injuries. Thomas Hoggarth, their third leading scorer last season, had a season-ending injury in the first game of the year, while last year’s leading scorer, Randy Staats and defender Max Wilson were hurt halfway through the year. Head coach Mike Accursi said they used 32 players this year.
In the playoffs, Halifax was down 7-1 at halftime against the Vancouver Warriors in the quarter-finals and scored nine straight goals to win. They beat the Georgia Swarm, backstopped by this season’s Most Valuable Player, Brett Dobson, in three games. But their success ended against the Toronto Rock. They lost game one 13-11 and dropped tonight’s match.
“I am so proud of our team,” said Jamieson. “It was a struggle early, there were a lot of question marks halfway through the year. We stuck together as a team, and we believed in what we had in the room. All the players leaned on each other and truly believed that if we came together and keep working that we can be here lifting the trophy. We were a couple of games short, but I can’t thank them enough for the hard work and the effort they put in.”
Halifax’s assistant captain, Jake Withers, described how he might view the seasons in a few weeks’ time.
“Hopefully, with some sort of happiness of pulling something out of it, right. We always preach we win or we learn. Obviously, it is tough, it is my second chance at the big dance and coming up short again (lost the finals with Rochester in 2018), especially doing it with someone like (Jamieson) who I look up to so much and someone I have played with my entire career. It is obviously hard to swallow. At the end of the day, we kinda did something special here, and it obviously showed with the fans that hung around and watched another team lift the championship trophy on our floor and still cheer for us when they’re out there. So we’re preaching in the back that it is going to hurt, and obviously, it will take some time to get over that. We win or we learn, and hopefully we can pull some things out of this and be ready to come back next year.”
It was a boisterous sold out crowd of 10,899 people inside the Scotiabank Centre. They roared when local hero Heather Rankin from the Rankin Family sang the national anthem, and Jonathan Torrens, most famous for playing J-Roc in the Trailer Park Boys, dialled up the hand crank siren before the game. They were treated to a halftime performance by Nova Scotian rap artist Classified. Even in defeat, the fans were still defiant. Chanting “Go Birds Go” as Toronto celebrated. Before the handshake line, Jamieson gave his gloves to a young fan in the stands.
“The fans are unbelievable,” said Jamieson. “I’ve said it before, but we are one of the few teams to have a home floor advantage, and you saw that tonight. They showed up, and we’re so happy to play in front of a crowd like this every week. Especially tonight, the league has another team to talk about for the best fans in the league.”
Sam English opened the scoring for Toronto two minutes into the game. He grabbed a loose ball after Cody Jamieson’s shot missed the net and bolted up the floor. The defence ran in front of him, but English ran around them and shot the ball past Halifax’s goalie, Warren Hill’s stick side and scored. He wasn’t intimidated by the chance of winning a title on the road in front of a loud home crowd.
“I just think embrace it,” said English. “This is a pretty cool spot we get to be in here, a sold-out crowd, an unbelievable atmosphere, and like Mark (Matthews) said, confidence. We knew we were the better team, and we beat them here earlier this year, and that gave us some confidence, too. Embrace it, understand the situation and go out and get it done.”
Owen Hiltz scored a minute after English’s goal to give Toronto an early 2-0 lead.
Clarke Petterson answered for Halifax. He dodged Josh Jackson to get to the side of the net and fired the ball over Nick Rose’s right shoulder.
Randy Staats tied the game for Halifax on the power play. He had the ball at the top left side and fired it past Rose’s glove. Staats’s only game since being injured in late February was in game three of their semifinal series against Georgia. He was still dealing with a leg injury and wasn’t fast tonight, but he was effective using his size to shield the ball and create plays.
Toronto answered with goals from Lucas Hucal and Chris Boushy. However, Petterson scored another goal, and the Thunderbirds were down 4-3.
Toronto kept striking. Matthews faked a shot to freeze Halifax’s defender, Colton Armstrong, and blew by him and fired a shot into the top left corner of the net to finish the first quarter with Toronto up 5-3.
Warren Hill started the second quarter for the Thunderbirds with a huge leg save off a breakaway from Josh Jubenville. Clarke Petterson awarded his goaltender a minute later. He ran in from the left side and fired a shot over Rose’s right shoulder for his hat trick goal.
Mike Robinson and Cody Jamieson scored two more goals to put Halifax up 6-5 five minutes into the second quarter.
Then Colton Armstrong and Curtis Romanchych took penalties on the same play, sending Toronto to a five-on-three power play. Boushy scored from the slot to tie the game.
The Rock kept coming. Hugh Kelleher and Owen Hiltz scored two goals in the final two minutes of the quarter to send the Rock to halftime up 8-6.
Classified’s performance lifted the crowd into a party-like mood again, and the party continued into the start of the third quarter. Casey Wilson passed the ball down to Brendan Bomberry in front of the net, and he scored to get the Scotiabank Centre rocking.
Three minutes later, Owen Hiltz answered for Toronto with his hat trick goal, moving into the centre of the offensive zone and firing the ball past Hill.
Hiltz’s goal was the last of the quarter. Halifax did a decent job of only allowing outside shots, and Warren Hill was big when needed. While Toronto’s defence was excellent, causing turnovers and forcing Halifax to make quick shots.
This was similar to how the first game went. Halifax was up 9-5 at the end of the first half, but they managed only two goals in the second half and lost 13-11. Tonight was worse, with Halifax’s offence managing only one goal.
“Adjustments get talked quite a lot, and to be honest, I think it’s a little bit overrated. You come into the game with a game plan, and it is just us playing to our strengths in that moment,” said Sawyer. “Our offence, defence, special teams…they complement each other. You always want to have everything firing on all cylinders, but the reality is that is not always happening. We had some pretty good resolve out there of sticking with what we need to do to be successful. Regardless of the situation or the moment. Don’t think about what has happened. Think about what is going to happen.”
“They’re big, they’re strong, they’re fast, they’re aggressive, they are a good team over there,” said Jamieson. “We had it going there at the start, and maybe we just fell short. Friday night felt the same. I don’t know if it is necessarily adjustments that they made, obviously we will have to re-watch some film, but hats off to their defence, they didn’t allow us to score many goals.
Hill’s strong play continued in the fourth quarter. He stopped Chris Boushy alone in the slot to start the quarter. Later, he stopped CJ Kirst open on the left side.
“If you’ve watched any game from February on, you will see that (Hill) has been the backbone of our defence and our team,” said Withers. “We kinda go as he goes, and we have been riding that wave since February, when we were 3-8, and he kept us in every game over the last 12 weeks.”
But Nick Rose was up to the task. Jamieson had a great chance in the high slot, but Rose went down to make the save. Later, he robbed Casey Wilson, stretching out to make a cross crease save.
CJ Kirst finally broke the 15-minute deadlock 10 minutes into the fourth quarter. He used a pick from Dan Craig to get himself open and fire the shot through Hill’s pads to make the game 10-7.
With 1:50 remaining, Chris Boushy scored the backbreaking goal. He ran past Johnny Pearson and jumped over the crease to score his hat trick goal. Boushy was a member of the Thunderbirds from 2019-2023, but the Thunderbirds traded him specifically to the Rock so Boushy could manage his lacrosse and career commitments in a corporate job in Toronto.
Latrell Harris added another empty net goal, and the Rock won the game 12-7.
Chris Boushy and Owen Hiltz were standouts tonight, both scoring hat tricks and four points. Mark Matthews had a goal and four points, Challen Rogers had three assists, and Toronto received contributions in transition with Sam English, Hugh Kelleher and Lucas Hucal all scoring a goal and an assist. Nick Rose was fantastic, stopping 34 out of 41 shots.
For Halifax, Clarke Petterson led the way with a hat trick and four points. He finishes the playoffs as the league’s leading scorer, scoring 10 goals, 30 assists for 40 points in six games. Mike Robinson and Cody Jamieson both scored a goal and three points. This was the first playoff game where Jason Knox didn’t score, but he still finished the playoffs as the leading goal scorer with 18 and second in points with 28. Warren Hill stopped 40 out of 51 shots.
Both teams will try to make it back here in 2027. The Rock should be a powerhouse for a long time, with a balance of game-breaking youth and terrific veterans. Halifax’s best players like Clarke Petterson, Jason Knox, Graeme Hossack, Jake Withers and Warren Hill are all in their prime. With a healthier season, especially from Randy Staats and Thomas Hoggarth, they should be strong once again. The 39-year-old, Stephen Keogh has said during the season that this is his final year. We will see if that turns out to be the case. The 38-year-old Jamieson was asked about his future post-game.
“I think I would be lying if it is not a question mark in my head,” said Jamieson. “Would I be lying if I had my mind made up right now, no, so we will see when the summer comes about and how the body feels. When you come up to the age I’m at, I’m a lot older than those guys out there, not just on our team but around the league, so it’s always a question in your head if you still got it, if you can still do it, if you can provide something to the team. So I would be lying if I would say it wasn’t a question.”
However, for the present, the Rock will have the summer to enjoy being the 2026 NLL champions.
“How many beers are in the (NLL) Cup? As much as there needs to,” said Mark Matthews.
