The second leg of the 2025-26 season has barely gotten its foot through the door and the stakes have never been higher! Kicking off the season’s true midpoint in Week 10 and 11, the Toronto Rock is set to face off against their provincial neighbors, the Oshawa FireWolves and the Ottawa Black Bears, in a nearly forgotten, revamped race for regional command– the Battle of Ontario.
The three-team round robin stands out as the closest thing the NLL still has to a regional conference since moving away from the East/West Divisional format in the 2023-2024 season. With regional dominance and the potential for postseason climbs on the line, the old guard in Toronto looks to beat out the plucky, young provincial usurpers in Oshawa and Ottawa.
“We’re looking for wins anyway we can get them and momentum anyway we can get it,” said Ottawa head coach Dan MacRae. “We’ve got some stiff competition in the province here with the FireWolves and the Rock.”
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The NLL has been host to several regional rivalries over the course of its existence, most notably and famously highlighting the Battle of the Prairies between the Calgary Roughnecks and the Saskatchewan Rush, or the I-90 Thruway Rivalry between the Buffalo Bandits and the Rochester Knighthawks. With that, the Toronto Rock, formerly the Ontario Raiders, has remained the only Ontario-based team in the NLL since the Ottawa Rebels’ relocation to Edmonton, Alberta in 2003, halting the Ontario rivalry for over two decades.
“Ontario is such a hotbed of lacrosse, and even when I was growing up out west, we always looked at Ontario and the talent that comes out of here,” said Toronto captain Challen Rogers. “We want to be the best in Ontario and the League, and every time we get a chance to put a number to the other Ontario teams, it’s a great opportunity for us.”
At present, the majority of the NLL’s player makeup were either too young to remember the original Battles of Ontario, or would have retired years prior. However, at the head of all the action stands Oshawa head coach Glenn Clark. Clark was originally drafted by the Ontario Rebel in 1998 before their relocation to Toronto, and remains as one of the few active members of the NLL to have participated in the original Battles for Ontario. But while leading his FireWolves through their first season in Ontario, he’s made sure his players have kept their cool and upped their intensity.
“[The FireWolves] are so intense and focused on any game because each game in the NLL is its own challenge,” said Clark. “The geographical rivalry is something you kind of look at and are aware of, but when players, coaches and teams are in it, it really is about having success in that moment.”
Conversely, Ottawa has been firing on all cylinders to find meaning and motivation in every aspect of their regional matchup. As head coach Dan MacRae explained, on top of the near immediate ramifications of the first two weeks of play in the second half of the season, the middle weeks stand out as an especially tough time for players, coaches and staff. On top of their outside obligations, the Black Bears are seven games into a ten-game stretch since their last bye game in Week 2, and having regional conference games circled on the calendar has helped keep the Ottawa flame lit through their next weekend off.
“Guys have day jobs, guys have families, they’ve got a lot going on,” MacRae said. “It’s tough to get up for games, so these types of games really help us as a staff and as players to try to get up with a little bit of extra meaning.”
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Additionally, MacRae is no stranger to the intensity of a rivalry rough-up, having spent nine seasons of his 13-year career with the Calgary Roughnecks’ defensive line fighting tooth and nail in the early days of the Battle of the Prairies. During his time in Alberta, MacRae recalled squaring off against the Roughnecks upwards of five or six times a season, each meeting chippier than the last.
“I’m thankful we don’t have that with this rivalry, because, number one, those teams were exceptionally good, so we were usually on the wrong end of those battles, but it gives them a little bit of extra special meaning,” said MacRae.
Ottawa is not alone in that feeling either. In his first year with the FireWolves before the team’s relocation ahead of the 2025 season, sophomore forward Dyson Williams got his first taste of regional competition with the then Albany Firewolves duking it out with the Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks in Upstate New York.
“When you’re playing in the best league in the world, being able to play games against a team so close to where your team is, it brings you back to those days of playing minor league lacrosse,” said Williams. “You’re just hopping down the road and all of a sudden, you’re playing in front of a thousand fans against a rival.”
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The Rock holds home-field advantage for both of the remaining bouts of the Battle of Ontario, but their Week 10 struggle against Ottawa currently stands out as the most intimidating matchup on the board. In addition to their 4-4 record, the Black Bears are home to two of the League’s top point-scorers– captain Jeff Teat (57PTS, 22G, 35A) and Seal turned Black Bear Rob Hellyer (48PTS, 16G, 32A). The two are both Ontario natives with claims to stake in the Battle of Ontario, but Hellyer has potentially the biggest bone to pick in the conference.
“Ottawa, they like to push the ball and they have arguably the best player in the world right now with [ Teat], and you can’t let a guy like him get hot,” said Rogers. “But [Hellyer] is going to come out guns-a-blazing, this’ll be his second time back in Toronto playing against us.”
After a decade-long career with the Toronto Rock, Hellyer was traded to the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in August 2022, in exchange for the Desert Dogs’ first-round selection in the 2024 Entry Draft and their first-round selection in the 2025 Entry Draft. Hellyer wouldn’t face off against his former squad again until the 2023-24 season, when the League pivoted to the Unified Division model, and wouldn’t play in Ontario again until the following season after being signed by the San Diego Seals. Now, as a first-year Black Bear and nearly four years after the trade, Hellyer is not only lining up against the team that drafted him, but also for the 2024 and 2025 Draft Picks the Rock traded him for– Sam English and CJ Kirst.
“We’re working on some things defensively that we want to clean up, but Toronto, it’s no secret that they’ve got that youth movement there with the three rookies,” said MacRae.
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MacRae is more than familiar with English’s playstyle, having coached him during English’s time playing Junior A with the Burlington Blaze. Alongside their 2025 first-round picks, Kirst and Owen Hiltz, MacRae has recognized the need for a strong defensive presence in this weekend’s matchup to shut off Toronto’s dynamic rookie-centered offense and their quick transition game. But, due to the unfortunate injury suffered by starting Rock goaltender Nick Rose, the Black Bears are now seeing an opportunity to exploit reliever goalie Troy Holowchuck’s time spent on the bench this season.
“We’re going to have to be ready to win our individual matchups, but they have a young goalie in net,“ said MacRae. “We’ll be looking to test [Holowchuk] out early, try to get him unsettled, while we look to push the ball ourselves and play our fast-paced Ottawa Black Bears game.”
From the Den, Oshawa goaltender Doug Jamieson currently leads the League in saves (308 SV, 80% SV%), and forwards Alex Simmons and Tye Kurtz have both become mainstays on the League’s stat sheet, taking up two of the top-ten slots for points scored. The FireWolves have also since acquired lefty “power forward” Dawson Theede from the Halifax Thunderbirds, who made his debut against the Colorado Mammoth in Week 9.
Denver, Colorado – January 24, 2025: Oshawa FireWolves at Colorado Mammoth at the Ball Arena in Denver Colorado, United States. (Photo by John Matthew Harrison/National Lacrosse League)
Dawson Theede #15 of the Oshawa FireWolves
“We needed a piece like [Theede], we needed somebody that was a bit of a bigger body and more physical to create some space, particularly on our left side,” said Clark. “I liked his start in Colorado, and I think as the guys get more comfortable and start to acclimate and are able to read off each other, he’s going to have more success with our group.”
Ottawa currently leads the race headed into Week 10’s matchup against the Rock, thanks to Week 6’s win over the FireWolves. But Oshawa is not far behind, sporting a 1-1 in-region record with the loss to Ottawa and their opening weekend win over Toronto. Though Toronto remains the only team in Ontario without a win over its provincial rivals, a win against Ottawa this weekend would completely tie the standings at 1-1. A Toronto sweep in Week 11 would drop Oshawa to the bottom of the conference and drop the Rock in first with two wins. But regardless of the possibilities or conference clinching, every team is headed into these next two weekends with the need for a victory.
“There’s a lot to play for here, and it’s a big turning point in our season,” said Rogers.
Toronto Rock
Oshawa Firewolves
Ottawa Black Bears
