Esso Cup

The Esso Cup is the Canadian national women's U-18 (formerly midget) ice hockey club championship, sponsored by Esso. It is an annual event, sanctioned by Hockey Canada, that takes place each April. The current champions are the St. Albert Slash, who won the 2018 Esso Cup in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

History
The forerunner to the Esso Cup was the Esso Women's Hockey Nationals, which was the Canadian senior women's championship from 1982 to 2008. With the evolution of the Nationals into a professional tournament, Hockey Canada elected to discontinue it in 2008 and replace it with a national female midget championship known as the Esso Cup.

The inaugural Esso Cup was played in April 2009 in Calgary, Alberta. The Westman Wildcats from Souris, Manitoba were the first gold medalists. The St. Albert Slash of Alberta are the only team to win the championship more than once.

Format
The Esso Cup follows Hockey Canada's standard six-team national championship format. Branch champions compete in regional playoffs; the regional winners and a predetermined host team then compete for the national championship. In years when not all regions have participated in the Esso Cup, another region has been allowed to send a second team to keep the field at six teams.

The Esso Cup uses the IIHF points system for the round robin, which awards three points for a win in regulation time. If the game is decided in overtime or a shootout, the winning team receives two points and the losing team receives one. No points are awarded for losing a game in regulation time. After the round robin is complete, the top four teams (by points) qualify for the playoff round.

Each year's gold medal game is televised nationally on TSN and RDS. All other tournament games are streamed live on Hockey Canada's website.

The 2020 Esso Cup was to be held at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan hosted by the Prince Albert Bears. It would be cancelled when Hockey Canada announced on March 12th that all activity under its' jurisdiction were cancelled for the season. Prince Albert was re-awarded the 2021 tournament with Lloydminster, Alberta who were originally schedule to host the 2021 event being awarded the 2022 event instead.

All-Time Results by Region

 * As of 2019–20 season
 * Note: The Quebec region has not participated every year. In such years, a second team from another region has qualified in their place.

Regional Qualifiers

 * Esso Cup Atlantic Regional
 * Esso Cup Central Regional
 * Esso Cup Pacific Regional
 * Esso Cup Quebec Regional
 * Esso Cup West Regional

Award Winners
See: List of Esso Cup award winners