BRANDON MAKI, Special to the Sun
In one of the wildest games in recent memory, the Ottawa 67’s buried their rival Peterborough Petes, in a 6-2 win inside The Arena at TD Place on Sunday afternoon.
The 67’s were up by five goals late in the contest, when tempers flared from the Petes side, giving the game a fight-filled final few minutes.
“I think it was one-sided,” said Ottawa head coach Dave Cameron. “I thought we played a real solid game. Teams, for some reason, think they can run us out of our rink, and it’s not going to happen.”
The win, their third in a row, improved the 67’s record to 21-4 and increased their lead in the Ontario Hockey League’s East Division standings on the second-place Petes (13-11-3) to 113 points.
It was, once again, six different goal-scorers coming through for the 67’s. Vinzenz Rohrer, Luca Pinelli, Henry Mews, Brady Stonehouse, Matthew Mayich and Cooper Foster provided the offence, while Collin MacKenzie made 16 saves in 59:48 of action, before his day ended with a fight against opposing netminder Liam Sztuska.
Rohrer opened the scoring, just 5:19 in. Jack Matier hit Mayich with a D-to-D pass, and he fired the puck along the ice, where Rohrer was able to tip it home, giving the Montreal Canadiens prospect his ninth of the season.
Late in the first, a Chris Barlas shot was knocked down in front, but Pinelli came flying in to blast it past Sztuska, making it 2-0 in favour of Ottawa.
Then, 8:13 into the second period, with the 67’s on the power play, a loose puck bounced to Mews, who had all day and a wide open net to score his fourth goal in three games.
The power play continued to bear fruit for the home side with Cam Tolnai and Rohrer combining to find Stonehouse on a bumper play in front. His 13th of the campaign made it a 4-0 lead.
Tucker Robertson got one back for Peterborough, late in the second, but Mayich broke in on an odd-man rush with Rohrer less than five minutes into the third, and rifled home his first of the year, restoring the four-goal advantage.
Foster added his own marker to make it 6-1 before tempers flared between the two teams.
The final 10 minutes saw two Petes players get ejected for checks to the head, and both goaltenders ejected for their fight.
Robertson added a late goal for Peterborough.
“I think we had a really good first two periods, and even in the third period, we didn’t give them a chance to come back,” said Rohrer, who also chipped in with two assists.
“I think that’s a credit to us. The things that happened at the end of the game, it’s hockey. Emotions run high, sometimes that happens.”
After handing the Petes their third straight loss in decisive fashion, the 67’s head out on the road next week, beginning with a visit to the Windsor Spitfires on Thursday, at 7:05 p.m.
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