Final Qualifying Teams Selected, Round Robin Underway on OHL Cup Opening Day

By Mike Beasley on March 15, 2017

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The Mississauga Reps edged out the Halton Hurricanes 5-2 in a Wild Card Play-In to punch their ticket to the OHL Cup. (Courtesy of the GTHL)

The 2017 OHL Cup got underway on Tuesday, March 14 at the Scotiabank Pond with the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) playing host to the event.

Twenty of the best Minor Midget teams in Ontario and the United States will be competing for the prestigious OHL Cup.

The tournament is also a great opportunity for OHL scouts to see many of the top minor midget aged players from across Ontario and parts of the U.S. in action prior to the 2017 OHL Priority Selection.

This year’s Priority Selection for 2001 birth years will be held on Saturday, April 8.

The championship final will be held at the Mattamy Centre on Carlton Street in downtown Toronto on Monday, March 20.

On Day 1, eight matches including four wild card and four round robin games were held.

In the first wild card match of the day, the Toronto Young Nationals advanced with a 4-3 win over the Grey Bruce Highlanders.

The Mississauga Senators edged the York Simcoe Express 2-1 in double OT to move on as did the Mississauga Reps who downed the Halton Hurricanes 5-2.

In the final qualifying game of the game of the day, the Toronto Titans had little trouble disposing of the Kitchener Rangers with a convincing 7-1 victory.

With their wins, the Young Nats, Senators, Reps and Titans move to the round robin portion of the event which also started on the opening day.

Tuesday night featured the Mississauga Rebels knocking off the Quinte Red Devils in the opening game of the tournament.

The London Jr. Knights were victorious as well with a 3-0 shutout over the Toronto Jr. Canadiens.

The Vaughan Kings and Whitby Wildcats played to a 3-3 draw and the Toronto Marlboros edged Ajax-Pickering 3-2.

The round robin format has each team playing four games through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the field is cut down with quarterfinal and semifinal action on Saturday.

After a day off on Sunday, the tournament will conclude on Monday night.

In last year’s final, York-Simcoe edged the Toronto Marlboros 2-1 in double OT for their first OHL Cup title since 2004.

Speaking of the Marlies, they have participated in the finals for the last seven years, winning the OHL Cup on three of those occasions.

Live streams of the games are available at https://ohlcup.gameonstream.com.