By Brendon Crossman
Photos by Dominic Repaci (above) and Erin Riley (below)

Tonight’s OHL Cup championship game presents uncharted territory on many levels.

It will be broadcast nationally for the first time (7:30 p.m. ET, on Sportsnet One). It will be played in primetime on a Monday instead of its regular Sunday matinee timeslot. It will make its first visit to Mattamy Athletic Centre – the former Maple Leafs Gardens in the heart of downtown Toronto.

The opponents, however, are quite familiar. In fact, the Don Mills Flyers and Toronto Marlboros wrapped up an eight-game GTHL Playoffs Championship series just eight days ago.

The Marlboros are making their ninth consecutive appearance in the OHL Cup championship game and are looking to add another piece of hardware to a trophy case that already features the 2015 Scotiabank GTHL Playoffs crown.

The club captured the championship with a Game 8 win over the Flyers last Sunday. Elijah Roberts and Jake McGrath played the heroes in that contest – Roberts scored the lone goal at 6:03 of overtime and McGrath posted his second straight shutout.

Roberts’ goal was another dagger in the hearts of the Flyers, who just weeks earlier lost a tiebreaker game for the Kraft Cup – also in overtime – against the Toronto Titans. It was just their second loss in regular-season play all season.

Despite the team’s heartbreak in clinching games for the regular-season and playoffs, Flyers head coach Lindsay Hofford knows his team has the chance to win the ultimate prize tonight.

“I think everybody forgets about everything else other than [the OHL Cup],” said Hofford after his team clinched top spot in the Shanahan Division.

These clubs also met in the OHL Cup final in 2011, when the Marlboros were led to a 5-3 win by future first-round NHL draft picks Nicholas Ritchie (Anaheim Ducks) and Joshua Ho-Sang (New York Islanders). The Flyers were led that season by defenceman Darnell Nurse (Edmonton Oilers) and forward Max Domi (Arizona Coyotes), who tied for the tournament scoring lead with Marlboros David Perklin and Cody Thompson.

Tonight marks the seventh all-GTHL final since the OHL Cup tournament was introduced in 2003. Prior to that year, the trophy was awarded to the All-Ontario Bantam champions.

The puck drops at 7:30 at Mattamy Athletic Centre (50 Carlton Street) and on Sportsnet One. 

The game is free to attend.