BRATISLAVA, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The 34th round of Slovakia’s premier hockey league played in the middle of the Christmas holidays pitted the top two teams against each other - the leading Kosice hosted the second-ranked Bratislava.
The sold-out arena in Kosice was hoping for the home team to build on its exceptional 10-game winning streak and the 10-time Slovak champions delivered. After an evenly balanced first period with both teams scoring once, Kosice’s center Jakub Suja broke the tie in the third, bringing his team the 11th consecutive Tipsport Liga victory and a seven-point lead on top of the rankings, serving the visitors their third straight defeat.
In Hungary’s capital Budapest, a barrage of four consecutive goals in the first period by Banska Bystrica showed the home team who was boss on Thursday. The visitors’ Finnish left-winger Joona Jaaskelainen led the points department with two goals and one assist, helping his third-ranked team catch up to Bratislava in the standings after a 5-2 victory.
Elsewhere, Trencin’s solid five-game winning streak came to a surprising end after the worst team of the league Liptovsky Mikulas triumphed 4-2 on home ice. The visitors took the lead twice but the home answered both times and scored two more in the final stretch to end its negative streak of six consecutive defeats. Liptovsky Mikulas remains on the bottom of the rankings but cut its deficit to the penultimate Nove Zamky to 5 points.
Zvolen’s fans took a deep sigh of relief as their favorites managed to end the embarrassing seven-game losing streak, crushing Nove Zamky in the process on its home ice 6-0.
The second period was a total disaster for the home team with the visitors scoring five times in a row. Zvolen’s new acquisition, the American right-wing Michael Parks, scored twice and added one assist in his second game for the club from Slovakia’s central region.
The other Hungarian team in the league Miskolc is now only a single point from the fifth-ranked Poprad after 3-2 victory in a direct clash. The home team took the lead with two goals but Poprad rallied with two of his own. The visitors’ high hopes for a happy ending got crushed late in the second period when Nikandrosz Galanisz scored the game-winner on a power-play.
The only team to gain a rank in the 34th round is Nitra, moving from ninth to eighth place after a decisive 5-1 victory over Detva. The home team’s Canadian defenceman Kenney Morrison led the scoring department with two goals, the visitors sent only a meager eight shots towards Nitra’s goalie.
