Royal Bank Cup
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The Royal Bank Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament held to determine the Canadian Junior A champion. The winner of the tournament wins the Royal Bank Cup. The forerunner to the Royal Bank Cup was the Manitoba Centennial Cup, which ran for 25 years from 1971 to 1995 inclusive.
The Doyle Cup Champion traditionally plays off against the Anavet Cup Champion at the Royal Bank Cup for the Western Canadian Championship, The Abbott Cup. The outcome of the Abbott Cup is determined during the Royal Bank Cup round robin and the outcome of the game is more important in tournament placement than the long history of the award.
The current tournament structure is a five-team round-robin with a playdown. The participating teams are the four regional champions and the host team.
- Fred Page Cup: Eastern Champion
- Dudley Hewitt Cup: Central Champion
- Anavet Cup: Western Champion
- Doyle Cup: Pacific Champion
- Host Team: Canadian Junior A Hockey League
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[edit] Royal Bank Cup History
In May of 1996, the inaugural Royal Bank Cup was held in Melfort, Saskatchewan, continuing the fine tradition of a National Junior ‘A’ championship. Each league across Canada sends their championship club to a regional qualifier, playing for the right to represent the region at the Royal Bank Cup tournament. The first ever winner of the Royal Bank Cup was the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League.
Since the first RBC Cup tournament, every tournament has been executed as a round robin tournament with a host city/team and four regional champions competing. As of the Royal Bank Cup 2007 tournament, the 12th Royal Bank Cup, 5 winners have been Pacific champions, 4 have been the host city, 1 was the Western champion, and 2 were the Central champion. The Eastern champions have yet to win a Royal Bank Cup.
Overtime is a common theme as the Royal Bank Cup, the longest game in RBC Cup history started on May 12, 2007 at Royal Bank Cup 2007 between the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and the host Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Columbia Hockey League. The Spruce Kings won the game 3-2 6:01 into the fifth overtime period [1]. The game lasted 146:01, just short of the CJAHL record set by the Toronto Jr. Canadiens and the Pickering Panthers in the 2007 Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League playoffs (154:32) [2].
[edit] 2008 RBC at Cornwall, Ontario
- For details, please see: Royal Bank Cup 2008.
[edit] Royal Bank Cup Winners
[edit] Manitoba Centennial Trophy History
The Manitoba Centennial Trophy was presented to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) by the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association to commemorate their centennial year of 1970. It was in that year that the CAHA reconfigured their junior tier, creating two separate classifications - Major Junior and Junior "A." The Major Junior class encompassed the teams that made up the "Canadian Major Junior Hockey League" while the Junior "A" section included the remaining junior teams within the association. With the Memorial Cup established as a trophy exclusively for teams in the "Canadian Major Junior Hockey League", the Manitoba Centennial Trophy served as the trophy for the champions of this new Junior "A" division.
The Red Deer Rustlers of the Alberta Junior Hockey League defeated the Charlottetown Islanders of the Island Junior Hockey League in 1971 to claim the inaugural Canadian Junior A Championship and Manitoba Centennial Trophy, often referred to as the "Centennial Cup". The final Centennial Cup was awarded to the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 1995.
Centennial Cup 1972 was the focus of national attention. The Guelph CMC's of the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League were in the final game of a four game sweep in the National Final against the Red Deer Rustlers when their leading scorer Paul Fendley lost his helmet during a body check and struck his head on the ice, knocking him into a coma. The National Hockey League prospect never woke up as he died a couple days later from head trauma. [3]
[edit] Manitoba Centennial Trophy Winners
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[edit] Most Championships by Province/Region
| Rank | League | Championships |
| 1 | British Columbia | 9 |
| - | Ontario (OPJHL, SOJHL, USHL, CJHL) | 9 |
| 3 | Saskatchewan | 9 |
| 4 | Alberta | 7 |
| 5 | Manitoba | 2 |
| - | Maritime Provinces | 2 |
