BRATISLAVA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- After surrendering the top spot in Slovakia's premier hockey league and losing five games in a row afterward, Kosice managed to end its negative series by defeating Michalovce, tying Banska Bystrica's second spot with 85 points as a result.
In the capital city, Tipsport Liga leader Slovan Bratislava was conquered by Poprad. The 45th round also featured a battle of two teams from the bottom of the table with the last-placed Liptovsky Mikulas edging out Nove Zamky in OT.
In a derby match between two teams from the east of the country, Kosice celebrated a victory after five failed attempts, defeating Michalovce 3-0 by scoring a goal in each period.
Kosice's goalie Andrej Kosaristan finished the night against the Tipsport Liga newcomer with his fifth shutout of the season, leading the league's statistics.
In Bratislava, Slovan had the opportunity to stretch the four-point lead on top of the standings but was denied by the fourth-ranked Poprad.
After a goal-less first period, the visitors punished Bratislava's fouls by scoring twice on a man advantage and added another goal to build a sufficient enough lead to put the game away at 4-2.
After 48 rounds, the bottom six Tipsport Liga teams will battle for a playoff spot and the season will be over for the last team.
At this stage, Liptovsky Mikulas will most likely be the one to finish the season in the last place, trailing the twelfth-ranked Nove Zamky by 11 points. These two teams met on Wednesday and the visitors managed to emerge victorious despite the unfavorable league standings.
Martin Kriska scored twice for the visitors but his teammate Michal Uhrik stole the spotlight with the game-winning goal three minutes into overtime.
Miskolc succeeded in erasing Trencin's two-goal lead early in the third period but the Luka Paukovcek scored the go-ahead goal for the visitors that resulted in a 3-2 victory, stretching Trencin's winning streak to four. Miskolc, on the other hand, lost its ninth match out of the last ten.
Zvolen's third consecutive victory fortified its position in the top half of the standings.
Nitra was close to turning the match around after being down by three goals in the last period and its players scoring three in quick succession, but the visitors capitalized on a late powerplay and sealed the 5-3 win with an empty-netter.
On the ice of one of the two Hungarian teams playing in the Slovak league, Budapest defeated Detva 6-4 and moved up two spots in the rankings, pushing its opponent to tenth place although both have 44 points now.
Both Peter Zuzin for Detva and C.J. Stretch for the home team managed to score twice.
