BRATISLAVA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The two top teams of the Slovak ice-hockey premiership Poprad and Nitra lost their Tuesday fixtures but still kept their positions in the rankings.
Bottom-ranked Liptovsky Mikulas lost its 16th match in a row, deepening the already historic crisis of the team.
In the regional eastern-Slovakian derby match between Poprad and Kosice, the league-leader was given no hope of triumphing as the visitors from the country's second-largest city scored five goals in succession already in the first period.
Poprad could have answered Kosice's opening goal but failed to convert on a two-man advantage and enabled the visitors to start their scoring show.
Kosice's Bruno Mraz had a solid night with two goals and assisting on another one, helping to end Poprad's three-game winning series.
"Nothing was going well for us today. I would have to get very personal with some players and I don't want to do that yet. I will save it for the next team practice. Our reputation suffered a lot today," admitted Poprad's coach Peter Mikula after the game.
Second-ranked Nitra could have made good use of Poprad's debacle and tie it in the rankings. It was leading 3-2 in the final stretch of the fixture in Zvolen but the home team's Finnish forward Mikko Nuutinen scored his second goal of the game in the final minute of regulation when his team pulled the goalie in an all-or-nothing effort and sent the game into overtime.
Nitra was awarded a great opportunity to make the best of the situation but Marek Tvrdon failed to capitalize on his OT penalty shot that could have brought the victory and two points for the standings.
Liptovsky Mikulas should probably consider calling it quits this season as the team from the central region of Slovakia lost also its 16th match-up in a row, succumbing to Dukla Trencin 5-2.
The home team offered a taste of what would await the visitors who are experiencing the most miserable season in their history by scoring 41 seconds after the face-off.
Liptovsky Mikulas did not falter immediately and even managed to rally and take the lead after two goals in the first period but Trencin answered in a similar fashion and four straight goals tipped the scales back to the home team's favor. Trencin's third straight victory puts it two points shy of ninth place in the standings. Enditem