BRATISLAVA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Tipsport Liga's worst team Liptovsky Mikulas was close to upsetting Poprad and ending the awful five-game losing streak on Sunday but the visitors crushed all hopes for a solid result with a 4-3 OT victory that pushes them up two spots in the rankings to fourth place.
Bratislava's forward Milan Kytnar scored a hat-trick against his former team of Zvolen and stretched the visitors' winning streak to four. Banska Bystrica is boasting the currently longest series of triumphs, winning its eighth in a row after defeating Miskolc.
The see-saw derby battle in Liptovsky Mikulas between two towns located near Slovakia's famous Tatra mountains saw an evenly balanced first half with the visitors' 21-year-old forward Peter Bjaloncik and also the home team's veteran center Robert Huna scoring twice. The hero of the night became Michael Vandas scoring the game-winner for Poprad 44 seconds into the overtime, serving Liptovsky Mikulas its sixth consecutive defeat.
Elsewhere, Bratislava's Milan Kytnar answered Zvolen's go-ahead goals twice and added one more to complete the prestigious hat-trick (his first of the season) against the team he used to play for in the previous two seasons of Tipsport Liga. Together with his teammate Tomas Zigo they scored all five goals during the important 5-2 away-game victory.
The reigning champion Banska Bystrica is still in the hunt for pole position, trailing the leading Kosice by only a single point. Miskolc, one of the two Hungarian teams playing in the Slovak league, offered little resistance on home ice, scoring the go-ahead goal in the second period but allowing the visitors to answer with four consecutive goals of their own. Banska Bystrica's American forward Cason Hohmann scored twice and added one assist on the 4-1 triumph.
The other Hungarian team, located in the Ujbuda district of the capital city of Budapest, had an even worse night getting crushed by Nitra 6-2. Eighth-ranked Nitra produced six different scorers and is now tied with Miskolc's 56 points in the standings after 40 rounds.
Kosice's excelling third line led by Jakub Suja broke the 2-2 tie against Trencin in the last period to enable his team to gain at least one point in the 16th consecutive Tipsport Liga match and stay on top of the rankings thanks to a three-point victory. Trencin's third loss in a row forced it to surrender the fourth place in the standings to Poprad. On the other hand, Kosice triumphed in its third consecutive match.
In a clash of two neighboring teams in the league rankings, Detva edged out Michalovce 3-2. Rastislav Gaspar's second goal of the night broke the tie and secured the much-needed victory on a power-play.
