BRATISLAVA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- As the Covid epidemic keeps worsening in Slovakia, two out of the six scheduled fixtures of the 19th round of the ice-hockey premiership Tipos Extraliga had to be postponed.

The remaining matches offered thrilling scoring performances as league leader HC Slovan Bratislava managed to put pucks into HC '05 Banska Bystrica's net on the 7-4 win, HK Poprad outscored reigning champions HKM Zvolen 6-5 thanks to Mike Dalhuisen's two last-period goals. HK Dukla Trencin put up yet another high-scoring game against newcomer HK Spisska Nova Ves away 5-4 in overtime, and HK Dukla Ingema Michalovce grabbed the second spot in the standings after defeating the bottom-ranked MHK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas 4-2.

Ninth-ranked HC '05 Banska Bystrica was intent on snapping its three-game losing streak on Tuesday. Still, the league-leading HC Slovan Bratislava showed no appreciation towards this effort and put on an offensive show, scoring a total of seven goals on 38 shots on target, effectively stretching its winning streak to three in a row. Three home-team players managed to score twice - the Canadian center Brant Harris, the American forward William Rapuzzi, and his fellow countryman Andrew Yogan also assisted on three goals to finish the night with a whopping 5 points.

An identical portion of 11 goals was also scored in Poprad. The home team battled the champions of the previous season HKM Zvolen, who had a bad start but are now gunning for the top spot in the standings arrived with three consecutive victories under their belt. Contrary to the match in Bratislava, this one was much more evenly matched, and both teams traded blows and took turns in taking the lead.

Four minutes into the third period, HKM Zvolen took the lead for the third time after the 19-year-old forward Maros Jedlicka's fifth goal of the season. But later came a great stretch for Poprad's Dutch defenseman Mike Dalhuisen who tied the game with 5 minutes left on the clock when his shot from the blue line found its way in and in the penultimate minute turned the game around with his second of the night, setting the final score to 6-5 after a similar play.

In a similar thrilling fashion, Trencin and Spisska Nova Ves kept trading blows throughout the whole game, and visiting Canadian forward Dante Salituro managed to tie the game during a powerplay in the final minute and push it into overtime on his debut after transferring from the French team of Scorpions Mulhouse. However, two minutes into OT, Trencin's forward Josef Mikyska scored the game-winner.

HK Dukla Ingema Michalovce's hunt for pole position in the Tipos Extraliga continues. The struggling and last-ranked MHK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas was no significant hurdle on Tuesday. The visitors scored twice in each of the first two periods to put the game away at 4-2 in the end and move to second place in the standings, trailing Slovan Bratislava by two points now. Enditem

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