Toronto Rock Take Game 1 of the NLL Finals 13-11 over Halifax
NLL Toronto Rock

Toronto Rock Take Game 1 of the NLL Finals 13-11 over Halifax

Published on May 15, 2026 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Toronto Rock News Release


HAMILTON, ON - The Toronto Rock rallied in the second half, kickstarted by a natural hat trick from NLL Rookie of the Year CJ Kirst, to defeat the Halifax Thunderbirds 13-11 in Game 1 of the Best-of-3 NLL Finals on Friday night at TD Coliseum in Hamilton. With another victory in Game 2 on Sunday, the Rock can win their seventh NLL championship and first since 2011.

"That's just a really good game and good showcase for the National Lacrosse League with really two good teams going punch for punch," said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer.

The Rock started well in opening frame scoring a pair of goals 24 seconds apart to lead 2-0 less than five minutes in. Halifax got on the board with a favourable bounce off a rebound leading to a near empty net goal and it seemed to calm the game for the visitors. Halifax scored the next three to lead 4-2 but the Mailman Mark Matthews delivered a huge goal late in the quarter to shave the Halifax lead to a goal at 4-3 after 15 minutes.

The second quarter belonged to the Thunderbirds as they tilted the game in their favour in a big way, outscoring the Rock 5-2 in the quarter and building a 9-5 lead at halftime. Halifax seemed to be scoring from anywhere and the Rock were back on their heels. The Rock's second goal of the quarter was also the last goal of the quarter and it came from Kirst's stick and as the Rock City crowd found out, the best was yet to come.

Kirst scored a pair to begin the second half which were his third and fourth goals of the game and amounted to a natural hat trick. Josh Dawick scored to bring the Rock to within one and then Challen Rogers tossed a perfect feed inside to Chris Boushy who buried from in tight as he's known to do and tied the game 9-9 through three quarters.

On just their second power play of the evening, Rogers stepped as he has time after time in these playoffs with a big goal putting the Rock up 10-9. Halifax struck back with a man-up goal of their own followed by a go-ahead marker to lead 11-10. That Thunderbirds lead lasted all of 14 seconds as Nick Rowlett made a big play off the faceoff to get Owen Hiltz the ball who was streaking off the bench and scored his second of the game to tie the game 11-11. Less than a minute later, Sam English was left unattended in the offensive zone and found some room to deposit what would be the game winning goal past Thunderbirds goalie Warren Hill. English made a great play in the late stages to give himself a breakaway and lock in a 13-11 Rock win in Game 1 of the NLL Finals.

"I think we play our best when our backs are against the wall and we need to be at our best," said English. "We can out and new we had a job to do and were at our best in the second half."

Kirst was the first star of this game, and he continues to impress more and more each and every game on and off the floor.

"There were tons of ebbs and flows to manage," said Kirst of the early parts of the game. "We were all calm in the locker room and on the bench and I think that's what led to a second half where we played our game and played to our standard."

The Rock outshot the Thunderbirds 59-49 and both teams were 1-for-2 on the power play.

On Sunday night, it's game two of the NLL Finals and the Rock have a chance to win the NLL Championship while the Thunderbirds will be trying to force a third and deciding game at TD Coliseum on Saturday, May 23 at 7:30pm.

For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 905-426-4744, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.

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