The Queen's Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the champion in men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

of the

Ontario University Athletics Ontario University Athletics (OUA; french: Sports universitaires de l'Ontario) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providin ...

conference of

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

. It has been awarded since 1903 to the champion between

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

universities. It is the second-oldest ice hockey trophy still being awarded, after the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

. The QUAA (now named the RSEQ) ceased to operate a university hockey league after the 1986–87 season. The conference's three remaining teams at that point (McGill Redmen, UQTR Patriotes, and Concordia Stingers) joined, and remain, in the OUA conference. One of the conditions of the merger was the Queen's Cup, representing the OUA champion, must be challenged for at an OUA institution - as such, when the OUA-East champion should host such a game and that school is based in Quebec, the game shall be hosted by the OUA-West team, while the OUA-East team shall have 'home' standing (last change).

History

For the 1902–03 season,

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, Queen's University and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

founded the Canadian Intercollegiate Hockey Union. The Queen's Cup, emblematic of the CIHU championship was donated by Queen's University of

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. The Queen's Cup was not presented during the war years of 1915–16, 1916–17, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1940–41, 1941–42, 1942–43, 1943–44, nor 1944–45. The first winner other than the founders was the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

in 1949. By the 1960s, other universities, including Ontario Agricultural College (Guelph), McMaster, Waterloo and Western were granted membership and became eligible to win the Cup. Other universities have since joined the CIHU, now known as the OUA conference. The original Cup was retired in 2000 to the

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. The 2021 championship was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

Playoff era

Three Division format

Bolded are Queen's Cup champions, ''italicized'' are runner-up, score is championship game only.

East vs. West format

Bolded are Queen's Cup champions. Source: McGill University, OUA

Championships by team

The

Toronto Varsity Blues The Toronto Varsity Blues is the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 43 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. The Varsity Blues traces its founding to ...

have won the most OUA championships with 41, including a record 11 consecutively between the 1914-15 to 1928-29 seasons.

References