A century ago, with perhaps the exception of the Red Sox and Yankees, this was the most heated rivalry in sports. And even then, when you think about it, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry never resulted in players lying in a pool of their own blood and players being arrested by the police.

In fact, when those things were happening in Montreal-Ottawa hockey games, the Yankees were still called the Highlanders and Jack Chesbro was firing spitballs from the mound.

OTTAWA – It started out as one of the loudest nights Scotiabank Place had ever seen. A SRO crowd of 20,500 towel-waving fans were hungry for a Game 6 win and a series upset as the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers were on the brink of elimination.

But somewhere along the way, the Ottawa Senators lost their focus. As a result, the conference quarterfinal series will be decided Thursday in New York when the Rangers host Game 7 at Madison Square Garden.