Battle of Ontario Alive and Well

The Maple Leafs went into Ottawa and handed the Senators a 5-1 loss at home, but a rivalry that's been quiet the last couple of games has shown some life again.

An aggressive Matt Carkner went straight after Colton Orr off of a faceoff, but a stick and a slip ruined what could have been another addition to a great series of fights.  It still goes down as the sixth fight between the two, but you won't see it on any highlight reels.  A quick list of Carkner-Orr bouts can be seen after the jump.

However, Orr did get some more fight out of the night.  A little over halfway through the third period, with the game basically decided, Orr was able to get his hands on Chris Neil, who is always a part of the extracurricular activities.  While the fight was Orr's, Neil put up a good fight against one of the NHL's toughest players.

Classic bout

John Erskine and Mike Rupp dropped the gloves in last night's outdoors Winter Classic.  Midway through the first period, before it got rainy, they exchanged big right hands in front 68,111 roaring fans.

Erskine's having his best season to date, and I'm not just referring to his probable fight of the year against Eric Boulton.  The defenseman has played 38 games and has already matched his career-high of 9 points.  He's on pace to break all of his season highs, from games played to goals to PIMs.

Update 925pm: I've confirmed with Erskine that Rupp asked to stop the fight and that while in the box Rupp said his contact had flipped.