67's 5, Sting 2

The Ottawa 67's came within 6: 47 of accomplishing what no other Ontario Hockey League team had done to the consensus No. 1 pick overall for the 2012 NHL entry draft since way back in mid-November.

And that would be to keep Nail Yakupov off a scoresheet, no small feat even if the probable future Columbus Blue Jacket has missed 20 of 29 games since Nov. 13 due to the world junior championship and then injury.

While the 67's fell just short when Yakupov scored his 22nd goal in just 27 games late in the contest, a visit by a player with the first name likely to be called next June in Pittsburgh is never a bad thing, and it certainly wasn't for a couple of 67's who will be part of the first rounds in the next two NHL drafts.

Leading the way was defenceman Cody Ceci, who scored the game-winner and set up another to carry the 67's (30-11-5) past the Sting (23-19-5) before a Civic Centre crowd of 6,188 Friday night that included past 67's captains and current NHL allstars Brian Campbell and Logan Couture, and seemingly every NHL general manager, all of whom pried themselves away from all-star social events to take a look.

Ceci, second in OHL scoring among defencemen at just 18 years of age, had his 15th mulit-point game of the season and fourth in a row, scoring on a power play just past the midway point of the third period. He now has 11 points in his last 10 games

He also helped set up league-leading goal scorer Tyler Toffoli for his 37th of the year in the second period, with 2013 probable Top 5-pick Sean Monahan making the play of the game, faking a shot, then sliding it across to an always anxious Toffoli.

And Ceci, who will play Tuesday in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects game in Kelowna, B.C., will not wait much longer than Yakupov does to hear his name come June.

"He's a great player," said Ceci, who made just one mistake all night and that was a giveaway that led to Yakupov's goal. "He likes to get in close and make that highlightreel goal and we tried to keep him outside and force him to make the plays he doesn't like to make.

"I thought I could have played better. I'm just thankful our guys picked me up when they had to."

With Columbus owning far and away the worst record in the NHL, Yakupov is on their radar, averaging better than two points a game. He has 18 points, including nine goals, his last seven games, with at least a point in every one of those contests.

Trouble is that Yakupov has been limited to just those seven games in a Sting uniform since Nov. 13, missing 20 in total, first due to commitments with the Russian world junior team, then eight games since after suffering a knee injury in the gold medal game.

Taylor Fielding opened the scoring early in the second when he fired a change-up past Sting goalie J.P. Anderson. Slightly more than 10 minutes later, Toffoli made it 2-0. Kanata's Ryan Spooner cut the lead to 2-1 late in the period. Yakupov and Shane Prince traded goals in the third and Mike Cazzola, into an empty net, closed out the scoring.

The 67's left after the game for road games tonight in Barrie and Sunday in Owen Sound.

RIMOUSKI ROLLS OVER GATINEAU

OcÉanic 5 , Olympiques 2

The Rimouski Océanic scored four unanswered goals after Tomas Hyka gave the Gatineau Olympiques an early lead Friday night in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and went on to record a 5-2 victory at home.

Hyka scored just more than two minutes into the game, but the Olympiques (19-22-8) wouldn't score again until he helped linemate Kyle Morrison to a power-play marker with less than two minutes to play.

Rimouski (30-21-0) received goals from Alexandre Mallet, Francis Beauvillier, Jérôme Gauthier-Leduc and Robbie DeFulviis before Jean-François Plante got an empty-netter.

Alexandre Michaud started in goal for Gatineau and was pulled halfway through after giving up three goals on 17 shots. François Lacerte made eigth saves the rest of the way.

The Olympiques are in Quebec City tonight.