The 2025 Mann Cup – the national championship for Canadian Sr. A lacrosse – begins this coming Friday, September 5, in New Westminster, BC at the historic Queens Park Arena. The New Westminster Salmonbellies will host the Six Nations Chiefs in a rematch of the 2023 series, which the Chiefs won in five games.
The Mann Cup was first awarded in 1910, donated by Sir Donald Mann, a Canadian railway entrepreneur. Until 1931, it was awarded for field lacrosse supremacy; in 1932, it was contested between two indoor teams for the first time. In the Cup’s 115-year history, the Salmonbellies are the winningest team with 24 championships, but their last one came back in 1991. They want their 25th in 2025 and have assembled a formidable roster to take on the challenge.
But standing in the way are the Chiefs: the defending champions who beat the Victoria Shamrocks last summer for their second consecutive title after beating New West in 2023. They’re looking for the rare three-peat. It would be their second three-peat – they also achieved the feat in 1994, ’95 and ’96.
This will be the fourth meeting between the clubs. Not only have the Chiefs won their prior three series against New West, but they’ve also won all seven Mann Cups they appeared in. The teams don’t like each other – both the ’94 series and ‘95 series featured a bench-clearing brawl. But today’s game is vastly different, so don’t expect fireworks like that this year – oh yes, it will be a physical series, but the focus will be on the unreal skill displayed by the members on each team.
Queen’s Park Arena is one of the premier lacrosse destinations in Canada, with its iconic wooden floor the main feature. The arena was built in 1930 – the definition of an old barn – though the floor was replaced in 2006. It gets warm inside and the crowd gets loud. Nestled in the middle of Queen’s Park, the 3,500-seat arena is surrounded by baseball diamonds, soccer pitches, a skatepark, community gardens and a sportsplex. With plenty of nature nearby, making the area feel remote in the best way possible, it’s actually just 20 minutes outside of downtown Vancouver on the banks of the Fraser River. September in New Westminster is always an exciting time when the Mann Cup is in town.
Either one of these teams could be considered an NLL All-Star team. All but two of the Salmonbellies’ active players are or have been regulars in the NLL, and every player on the Chiefs’ side is currently an NLL notable.
The Salmonbellies boast names like Mitch Jones (WLA regular season points and assists leader), Haiden Dickson (WLA goals leader), Will Malcom, Tyler Pace and Frank Scigliano.
Jones led the ‘Bellies in scoring throughout the playoffs with 51 points, followed by Tye Kurtz’s 45. Most of New Westminster’s offence against the Chiefs will come from their core group of forwards as their defence plays more of a stay-at-home style. Scigliano, who was named the WLA’s playoff MVP, played all but two minutes in the ‘Bellies nine playoff games and finished with an impressive 7.51 GAA.
Because British Columbia is considered a tier-two province under the Canadian Lacrosse Association, they are allowed to bolster their roster for provincial championships with the addition of three players. The ‘Bellies have added Elijah Gash from Victoria, Marcus Klarich from Maple Ridge and Ryan Sheridan from Nanaimo. Additionally, they’ll add Owen Grant to their roster now that his PLL season is over.
You can tell just how strong and evenly spread out the Chiefs’ offence is when you see that Lyle Thompson was only fourth in team scoring during the playoffs. It’s a familiar duo that led the pack: Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne. The stars of the NLL champion Buffalo Bandits took their talents slightly north this summer and wowed crowds across Ontario with their offensive dynamics.
Smith was named the Johnny “Shooter” Davis award winner as the MSL playoff MVP after scoring 57 points (26G/31A) in nine games – a point per game percentage of 6.33. Byrne had 33 points, while Ryan Smith was second on the team in goals. The Chiefs’ back end can really run the floor as well, with Tyson Bell, Steve Priolo and Matt Marinier each scoring three times in transition. After finishing an award-winning regular season with a 5.05 GAA, Warren Hill followed that up in the playoffs with a 6.00 GAA. He splits time evenly with Doug Jamieson, who finished with a 7.75 GAA. Expect the team to continue to rotate their goalies every game – it’s worked for the last several years.
The Salmonbellies finished second in the WLA’s regular season with a 14-4 record. In the playoffs, they swept Victoria in four games before taking out league leader Coquitlam in five games.
The Chiefs breezed through the MSL regular season with a 16-2 record, followed by an 8-1 playoff run in which they swept Owen Sound and beat Peterborough in five.
All Mann Cup games will be streamed live for $19.99 CDN per game via Playfullscreen. Details here.
