OTTAWA – Michael Santini scored at 4:10 of overtime to lift the Brampton Battalion to a 2-1 victory Friday night over the Ottawa 67's in a battle of Ontario Hockey League division leaders.

Santini took a long lead pass from Jordan Auld at centre ice and broke past Sean Monahan to go in alone on Ottawa goaltender Petr Mrazek, who made the initial save before Santini backhanded home his own rebound for his first goal of the season.

Brandon Robinson scored the other goal for the Battalion, which won a season-high fifth consecutive game to improve its won-lost-extended record to 19-10-4 for 42 points, first in the Central Division.

Goaltender Keegan Wilson made 38 saves for the Troops, who entered the game tied with Ottawa atop the Eastern Conference.

Dalton Smith received credit for the goal for Ottawa, 18-9-5 for 41 points in the East Division, while Mrazek faced 28 shots, including four in overtime.

“There are only two words to describe the game tonight, and that's ‘Keegan Wilson’,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “If he hadn't been on, there was no way we would have stayed in the game. He was just lights-out.”

Added Butler: “Give credit to Santini, too. We caught a break when the puck hit the official, and he went in on the breakaway. We preach to our guys to stay around the net, and he got his own rebound.

“Although it wasn't one of our greatest games tonight, Keegan allowed us to hang in it, and we got the win.”

The scoreless third period, like the rest of the game, saw the teams exchange missed scoring chances, with Mitchell Porowski of the Battalion and Smith among the near-scorers. Ottawa ended regulation time and started the extra session with the man advantage after Philip Lane was whistled for tripping at 18:07 of the third period.

Rookie Robinson, the only underager on the Battalion roster, tied it 1-1 at 14:08 of the second period. Robinson carried the puck across the Ottawa blue line and slipped past defender Marc Zanetti only to lose the disc. But it went to Sam Carrick, who fired from the right side, and Robinson, who continued toward the net, cashed the rebound for his eighth goal.

Ottawa had a strong chance on the power play early in the period after Marcus McIvor was banished on a weak roughing call at 3:28. Brett Gustavsen fired a rebound high and wide left with Wilson down late in the man advantage.

In the 13th minute Remy Giftopoulos failed to convert a rebound into an open net behind the sprawling Wilson, and Lane rang a shot off the left post with Mrazek down and out just after a Battalion power play ended in the 14th minute.

Cameron Wind, trying to regroup with the puck in the Battalion zone, was pressured by the forechecking Tyler Toffoli and retreated toward Wilson's crease, knocking the puck past the goaltender at 13:19 of the first period. Smith was credited with his sixth goal.

Smith just missed tipping the puck home from the left-wing side on an early power play, and Wilson stoned Giftopoulos, in on top of the goaltender, at the end of a three-way passing play during the same numerical disadvantage.

Jamie Lewis fired a shot off the left post behind Mrazek in the eighth minute, and the Ottawa goalie robbed Connor Jarvis at 9:19 by blocking his close-range shot with the catching glove despite being prone on the ice.

Brett Mackie fed Lewis alone in front in the 20th minute, but the resulting shot went just wide left.

The Battalion scratched Andreas Tsogkas, Brenden Miller, Matt MacLeod and Ian Watters. Ottawa, which dressed 18, two below the limit, scratched Shayne Campbell, Ryan Shipley, Michal Cajkovsky, Steven Janes, Shane Prince and Tyler Graovac.

The Battalion hosts the Sarnia Sting at 2 p.m. Sunday.

BATTALION NOTEBOOK: Attendance at the J. Benson Cartage Centre was 6,139 ... The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Ottawa was 0-for-5 ... The Troops are 10-5-2 on the road. The 67's are 9-4-2 at home. It was Ottawa's first home game since a 4-3 overtime win Dec. 2 over the Windsor Spitfires ... Opening line combinations included Carrick centring left winger Robinson and right winger Barclay Goodrow, Patrik Machac centring left winger Porowski and right winger Lane and Lewis skating between left winger Mackie and right winger Santini. Jarvis centred left winger Alex O'Neil and Adam Lloyd on right wing ... Machac returned to action after missing five games with a shoulder injury ... MacLeod incurred a concussion in a 7-2 road loss to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Nov. 18, while Watters is recovering from surgery on severed tendons in his right wrist ... Referee Chris Hodgins was honoured before the game, the last of a 14-year career as an OHL official. Hodgins's four-year-old son, Jordan, conducted a ceremonial faceoff ... After a league review, O'Neil was spared supplementary discipline for a check to the head of Spencer Green in a 7-4 road victory over the Kingston Frontenacs on Dec. 9 ... Cajkovsky and Prince are with the Czech and United States teams respectively preparing for the World Junior Championship to be held at Edmonton and Calgary starting Dec. 26 ... Toffoli and Cody Ceci returned to the Ottawa lineup after being cut from the selection camp for the Canadian team in the tournament. “The guys are disappointed,” coach Chris Byrne told the Ottawa Sun. “But we look for those guys to lead us in the second half and hopefully they'll have a 'Let's prove them wrong' attitude.”