BRATISLAVA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- After defeating third-ranked Nove Zamky in the previous round of the Tipos Extraliga, Dukla Trencin grabbed another valuable scalp in the Slovak ice-hockey premiership on Sunday by defeating Nitra 6-3 on its ice.
Nitra's blunder helped Poprad build a three-point lead on the top. Bratislava stretched its winning streak to five and trails third Nove Zamky by only two points.
Trencin's 20-year-old forward Oliver Okuliar experienced the best night of his professional career, scoring two goals against Nitra and assisting three goals to lead the scoring department together with the American forward Drew Shore who also scored twice and assisted one.
"We needed a match exactly like this - the points and also the way we played, keeping our opponents at bay," admitted Trencin's coach Peter Fruhauf after the match that took his squad one spot up to tenth in the standings.
Despite losing four in a row, eighth-ranked Detva turned out to be a tough nut for the league-leading Poprad Hockey Club to crack.
The home team took a two-goal lead in the first period and although the visitors answered with four straight, Detva almost forced the game into overtime by cutting the lead to 4-3 with only 2 minutes left to play and pulling the goalie but fell short in the end.
In other matches of the round, Slovan Bratislava beat Liptovsky Mikulas 6-2, Nove edged off Jegesmedvek Miskolc 3-2 in overtime, Zvolen trounced Banska Bystrica 6-1, and Kosice ousted Dukla Ingema Michalovce 1-0. Enditem
