The 67's carried the pace, albeit a very choppy one, for the better part of the last 40 minutes to take a 6-2 decision Wednesday night in Kingston, pulling within one point of the division-leading Frontenacs.
It wasn't always pretty -- Leo Lazarev, although making some key saves, was caught fighting the puck and flopping around in his crease a few times -- but the visitors managed to possess the often-bouncing puck more often than not in the offensive zone and wore out the opposing defenders.
Where the Frontenacs surrendered two points to the 67's in the race for first place, they added to their league lead in penalty minutes, surrendering three two-minute advantages and a four-minute third period powerplay to the conference's most disciplined.
Ottawa only scored once on the powerplay, their first of the night in the first period when Sam Studnicka opened the scoring, but used their later man advantages to continue their constant cycle game.
Shaky as Lazarev's rebound control was in the middle frame, his only costly rebound was with five seconds left in the first, allowing Ryan Cramford to tie the game.
By the time he started fighting the puck again, he had enough run support via goals from Connor Graham, Dante Salituro and Artur Tyanulin.
Stepan Falkovsky added to the lead early in the third and Trent Mallette sealed it with an empty netter.
Both East contenders have near-identical weekends, a challenge at the hands of the Sarnia Sting and a potential 'trap game' against the league's worst Guelph Storm.
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