BRATISLAVA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- In a surprising turn of events, the top three teams in Slovakia's ice hockey league Tipos Extraliga all lost their 40th round fixtures on Friday.

Dukla Michalovce continues to surprise, with its eighth consecutive victory bringing it just two points shy of third-ranked Bratislava. The visitors took a 3-0 lead going into the final period and although Slovan tried to rally thanks to Branislav Rapac's two goals, the equalizing goal never came.

For the duration of its match against Nitra, Poprad was always lagging behind, trying to answer Nitra's early goals. But it was not enough and Marek Tvrdon's two goals and one assist led Nitra to a 5-3 victory.

Elsewhere, Zvolen managed to answer Kosice's opening goal, but Pavel Klhufek stretched the lead with his two goals to 3-1. Although Zvolen continued to play without its goalie in the final moments and cut the deficit to one with 30 seconds left on the clock, it ultimately failed to push the game into overtime.

After three consecutive defeats, Detva regained its appetite by crushing Liptovsky Mikulas 9-2. The visitors were 4-0 up early in the second period, and although Liptovsky Mikulas tried to get back into the game with a goal soon afterwards, Detva scored five more again and erased all hopes for the home team, sending an incredible 62 shots at Liptovsky Mikulas' goal.

DVTK Miskolc's slim hopes of reaching the playoffs got even slimmer after a 5-1 beating by seventh-ranked Trencin, whose five different scorers ended its losing streak.

In Nove Zamky, Banska Bystrica managed to erase the home team's two-goal lead in the second period, but a third goal brought a five-goal barrage by Nove Zamky that utterly crushed the visitors' resistance. Both Canadian forward Slater Doggett and his Slovak teammate Juraj Jurik scored twice for Nove Zamky in the dominant 7-3 triumph. Enditem

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