BRATISLAVA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Tipos Extraliga playoff semifinal series between HKM Zvolen and HC Slovan Bratislava moved to the capital city of Slovakia on Saturday where the visitors managed to grab a 2-1 lead after an easy 5-2 victory.
Having won the regular season of the Slovak ice-hockey premiership, Zvolen is the favorite in the series but Bratislava turned out to be a formidable playoff opponent, grabbing one victory on Zvolen's ice on Wednesday.
Zvolen returned the favor on Saturday despite the home team resisting in the first half. Zvolen took the lead (as it did in the two previous match-ups) in the match twice and both times Slovan managed to respond and even up the score.
The tipping point came late in the second period when Zvolen had to face Bratislava's 5-minute powerplay and the visitors managed to strike instead, grabbing the lead for the third consecutive time, 3-2.
The final period of regulation time was pretty nervous on Slovan's part and Zvolen had multiple opportunities to stretch the lead during the resulting powerplays. Canadian forward Allan McPherson succeeded in doing so 11 minutes in, making it 4-2.
The home team decided to pull its goalie towards the end of the match but conceded an empty-netter instead, losing 5-2 in the end.
"We were going for the win, pressuring Slovan to make mistakes. My players moved well on the ice and converted on their scoring chances. The match was decided by our shorthanded goal and then we stretched the lead," Zvolen assistant coach Andrej Kmec summed things up after the game. Enditem
