| Current season or competition: 2012 Royal Bank Cup |
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
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| Inaugural season | 1996 (1971 Prior to RBC sponsorship) |
| Most recent champion(s) | Pembroke Lumber Kings (1st) |
| Most titles | Vernon Vipers (6) |
| TV partner(s) | TSN |
| Sponsor(s) | Hockey Canada Canadian Junior Hockey League |
| Related competitions | CJHL Prospects Game World Junior A Challenge Anavet Cup Doyle Cup Dudley Hewitt Cup Fred Page Cup |
| Official website | Royal Bank Cup Website |
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 for the Western Canadian Championship, the Abbott Cup to advance to the Royal Bank 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.
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In May 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 Royal Bank Cup tournament, every tournament has been played as a round robin tournament with a host city/team and four regional champions competing. As of 2011, 16 Royal Bank Cups have been awarded. The winner of the Doyle Cup as Pacific Region champions has won a leading eight times. The winner of the Anavet Cup as Western Region champions and the winner of the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Region champions have both won twice. The winner of the Fred Page Cup as Eastern Region champions has also won twice. Although four host teams have won the Royal Bank Cup, two of which won their region to compete in the event they were hosting (Fort McMurray Oil Barons in 2000, Halifax Oland Exports in 2002) while two played strictly as hosts and not regional champions (Summerside Western Capitals in 1997, Weyburn Red Wings in 2005).
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].
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]
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Italicized "Regions" represent the four distinct regions of Ontario Junior hockey that traditionally participate in Junior "A". Hockey Northwestern Ontario includes the former Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association.
The Roland Mercier Trophy is awarded to the Most Valuable Player of the Royal Bank Cup Championship.
Records included in this section took place in either Royal Bank Cup and Manitoba Centennial Cup tournament games and Manitoba Centennial Cup National Final Series games only.
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