With only four rounds left to play in the second and final stage of Tipsport Liga regular season, the Banska Bystrica Hockey Club stretches its lead on top of the standings to 13 points, securing the Dusan Pasek Trophy awarded to the winner of the regular season as a result.

The "Rams" will thus enter the upcoming playoffs from the first place, exactly like last season, which brought the team from Slovakia's central region its third championship in a row.

Banska Bystrica scored in its Friday fixture against Trencinone's goal in each period to build a steady lead on the way to a clear 3-1 victory on the away game, snapping the home team's four-game winning streak and stretching its own to six in the process.

Second-ranked Slovan Bratislava, one of the three top favorites for the championship triumph, managed to end a streak of four bad results by defeating sixth-ranked Zvolen 3-2 in overtime.

The visitors were going into the third period down by one but Eduard Sedivy shocked Zvolen with a shorthanded goal that tied the game and Ziga Pancze crowned Bratislava's rallying efforts with a game-winner in the second minute of OT.

In a derby match of two teams from the east of Slovakia, fourth-ranked Poprad scored twice in the first period to build a sufficient lead against third Kosice, triumphing 3-1 in the end and cutting the deficit to its upstairs neighbor to seven points in the direct confrontation. Kosice is still missing its top scorer Marcel Hascak due to injury.

While the six teams in Group A have already secured a spot in the playoffs and are only fighting for the most favorable position, the other six in Group B are battling it out for the last two open positions but only three of them retained a chance of securing a spot.

Michalovce is still leading the pack with 78 points and two more clubs are still in the fight with only four more rounds to play prior to the playoffs - Miskolc (75 points), one of the two Hungarian teams playing in the Slovak league, and Nitra (74 points).

Michalovce's fragile three-point lead remains the same after Friday's fixtures because the newcomer of the current season surprisingly lost 4-3 in last-ranked Detva.

The teams were going into the final period tied 2-2 but Detva scored twice within 50 seconds to gain the decisive lead.

The Hungarian derby between Budapest and Miskolc was decided in the second period when the home team built a 3-0 lead the visitors failed to negate.

Budapest has no chance of securing a playoff spot but this fact did not keep it from triumphing and making life difficult for its opponent.

Tomas Klempa was the key figure in Budapest's triumph, scoring twice for the home team.

The only team from the trio fighting for the playoffs to register a victory on Friday was Nitra, albeit it only gained two points for an OT triumph in Nove Zamky.

With both teams scoring twice in the first and last period, overtime had to decide the outcome.

Nitra's 21-year-old forward Samuel Bucek took matters into his own hands, scoring 75 seconds into the decider.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)