Erie Otters captain Dylan Strome developed into a top-end hockey player on ice and streets of Mississauga, Ontario.

The Ontario Hockey League’s J. Ross Robertson Cup wasn’t the most prestigious championship trophy the Strome brothers coveted as kids.

The Lord Comi Cup was their Stanley Cup.

It resembled the National Hockey League’s legendary title trophy, just smaller.

There was no bigger honor for a group of young players who played in those memorable road hockey games in their Mississauga, Ontario, neighborhood.

The names of champions are preserved on the 2-foot-tall silver trophy built several years ago in a high school wood shop class by Brandon Comi, Erie Otters captain Dylan Strome’s best friend and a regular in those Comi Cup contests.

Strome hasn’t seen it in a while, not since close friend and reigning champion Michael McLeod took it home after the last of their epic tournaments. But that’s the past, and Strome has his sights set on the OHL’s 124-year-old symbol of championship glory.

After Game 2 of the OHL Championship Series on Sunday afternoon at Erie Insurance Arena, Strome will head home to Mississauga with his sights set on filling a nagging void in a junior career featuring many impressive accomplishments — two conference titles in four tries, two appearances in the league finals, two years as Otters captain, and a chance to serve as captain of Canada’s National Junior Team.

Family and friends will be at Hershey Centre, which is now home to the Eastern Conference champion Steelheads, but served as hockey home for Strome and his brothers, Ryan and Matthew, as kids.

“It’s weird how it all works out,” Dylan Strome said of having a chance to win a championship that eluded them in two trips to the league finals, six to the conference finals and nine playoff berths since Ryan Strome’s rookie year with the Niagara IceDogs in the 2009-10 season.

“We’ve been right there. We’ve been close. We want our name to be linked with that (trophy),” Dylan Strome said.

A championship would honor all the work his brothers did on and off the ice, and all the support they received, all those years.

“We had three kids in high-level hockey,” he said. “When there’s three kids playing at different rinks at different times all the time, you’ve got to rely on family. We relied on each other, and we found a way to make it all work.”

An OHL championship would be the reward.

“To cap it off would be special,” said Ryan Strome, 23, a forward with the New York Islanders. “It’s escaped us the last couple years as a family. I think there would be no one more deserving, and no one that would want it more than (Dylan).”

‘Fierce competitor’

Ryan Strome has moved on from those road hockey games with his brothers. Competitive juices flow on the golf course these days because stories of those intense road hockey games aren’t exaggerated.

Otters teammate and fellow Mississauga native Patrick Fellows has witnessed a battle or two in recent years, when he played for a Dylan Strome-led team against captain McLeod’s club.

Dylan Strome and Michael McLeod always were on opposite sides for their road hockey battles.

“As good of friends as they are, they’re very, very, very competitive, two of the more competitive guys I’ve ever really seen in our neighborhood,” Ryan Strome said.

But they also spent lots of time together, often in car pools headed to a rink in their days with the Toronto Marlboros, a prestigious minor hockey program teams loved to hate, and always wanted to beat. That wasn’t easy because top hockey players like the Strome brothers flocked to the Marlies.

“People always knew how good they were going to be,” Fellows said.

Ryan Strome recently watched his brother “trying to score every goal, trying to win every play, every battle” during an Otters practice.

“Fierce competitor,” Ryan Strome called him, which he said explains why Dylan Strome has topped his own accomplishments in the OHL — draft ranking (No. 3 overall in 2015 compared to No. 5 in 2011), goals (114-105), points (354-295) and team success.

“He’s blown me out of the water,” Ryan Strome said. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see him win a championship.”

Don’t want to lose

Dylan Strome, one of the Arizona Coyotes’ top prospects, was disappointed about being returned to the OHL after dressing for seven games at the start of the NHL season.

But he was groomed to be the leader of a championship club, former Otters teammate Dane Fox said, because of a blend of humility, confidence and hockey sense that was on display from the start of his time in Erie.

Now, in his final OHL season, Strome has unfinished business, and he is determined that no one will stand in his way — not even Steelheads captain Michael McLeod and his younger brother and teammate Ryan McLeod.

“I like how competitive he is. He always wants to win,” said Michael McLeod, the 12th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft (New Jersey). “He’s fun to play with, and he’s fun to play against.”

Stromes stick by family and friends, until the sticks and ball come out. Then, Dylan Strome said, “you’re battling, and you don’t like each other very much. You don’t want to lose to your brother. You don’t want to lose to your buddies. You don’t want to lose.”

Those road hockey games helped mold the Strome brothers from kids in the driveway into top-end players who, Ryan Strome said, “want to win.”

Perhaps that’s why, before the playoffs began, Dylan Strome said he didn’t want to play in the OHL finals against his brother Matthew, a Hamilton Bulldogs winger and projected NHL first-round pick in June. But he appreciates this opportunity in front of him.

“You don’t really grow up playing in your driveway for the OHL championship,” he said. “But it’s something when you get there.”

Victor Fernandes can be reached at 870-1716 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/GoErieHockey.