The Dudley-Hewitt Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy awarded to the Central Canadian Junior A champion. The trophy is currently decided by round robin tournament format, at the conclusion of the playoffs of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, and Superior International Junior Hockey League, to determine the central representative at the Centennial Cup, the national Junior A championship. The current format includes the champions of the OJHL, NOJHL, and SIJHL and a pre-selected host city, but in the past has included the champions of the Central Canada Hockey League, Quebec Junior Hockey League, and even the champion of the Callaghan Cup. The trophy is named after George Dudley and W. A. Hewitt, who served as administrators for the Ontario Hockey Association and are inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame. History The trophy was first awarded in 1971. From 1984 until 1995, the Thunder Bay Flyers of the United States Hockey League competed for the Dudley Hewitt Cup, winning four titles in 12 years. The 2002 Dudley-Hewitt Cup marked a new chapter in Ontario hockey history. Since the mid-1990s, the OPJHL and NOJHL had squared off in a head-to-head series to determine the Central Canadian seed in the Royal Bank Cup. In 2001, a new Thunder Bay-area league, called the Superior International Junior Hockey League, was founded. Late in the 2001–02 season the CJAHL informed all three leagues that instead of a series, the Dudley would be contested through a round-robin format. Initially, both the OPJHL and NOJHL threatened to boycott the DHC. The CJAHL announced that if the OPJHL and NOJHL did not send a champion, the SIJHL champion would move on by default to the national championship. The OPJHL did not budge, but the NOJHL gave in and in January announced that their champion would play the SIJHL champion for the DHC in a best-of-three series. The 2014 Dudley Hewitt Cup saw its fourth all-OJHL Dudley-Hewitt Cup final between the Wellington Dukes and the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots. Toronto won 2–1 advancing to the Royal Bank Cup in Vernon, British Columbia. The City of Sudbury and the Sudbury Nickel Barons were awarded the 2016 Dudley-Hewitt Cup, but in the spring of 2015 the city withdrew as a result of the Sudbury Nickel Barons moving to Rayside-Balfour. The tournament was awarded to Kirkland Lake, Ontario, and the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners. The 2017 Dudley-Hewitt