BRATISLAVA, Feb. 15 -- The players of Zvolen showed no love on Valentine's Day for their opponents from Miskolc, crushing the Hungarian team in the 49th round of the Slovak premier hockey league Tipsport Liga 9-2 on Friday.
Fifth-ranked Trencin almost took down Banska Bystrica, forcing the league-leader into a game of luck in a thrilling shootout.
Eighth-ranked Miskolc was the first score in Zvolen but the home team answered with a barrage of six consecutive goals to destroy the opponents' hope of a positive result.
Zvolen's 29-year-old forward Peter Zuzin dominated the scoreboard with a hat-trick in his 400th game, his colleague Jozef Tibensky added two goals to his collection and Allan McPherson scored one and assisted two on a wonderful night for the home fans, leading the team from Slovakia's central region to their seventh victory in a row.
The crowd in Banska Bystrica was also treated to a goalfest. There was action from the get-go as fans were treated to four goals within the first four minutes.
The home team managed to gain an edge over Trencin but the opponents rallied in the third and pushed the game into overtime at 4-4 with four different shooters on both sides.
With neither teams succeeding in putting the game away with a golden goal, a shootout was to determine the winner.
The champions of the last three seasons showed more experience in the nail-biter and capitalized on two attempts while every Trencin's try got rejected by the league leader's goalie Tyler Beskorowany, taking his team to a 5-4 victory, its fifth in a row.
In the capital city, Bratislava used Banska Bystrica's stumble to cut the deficit to 2 points in the standings after defeating Nitra 4-1.
Nitra was the more active team but the visitors taught them a lesson in efficiency, putting 4 of their 15 shots in goal. Bratislava's goalie Vladislav Habal on the other hand, shut the door on 25 of Nitra's shots.
Poprad managed to rally against the other Hungarian team playing in the Slovak league and after trailing 1-2 after the first period, triumphed over Budapest 3-2 in the end. Poprad's 27th victory of the season pushes it up one spot in the standings to fifth.
Similar to the match in Banska Bystrica, the clash between Nove Zamky and Michalovce had to be decided post-regulation as the scoreboard showed a 4-4 draw after 60 minutes.
This time, the extra period produced a winner in the first minute with Peter Obdrzalek becoming the ninth scorer, putting the 5-4 game-winner into the net for Nove Zamky, lifting his team one spot up to the tenth place.
In a battle of the two worst Tipsport Liga teams, Bottom-ranked Liptovsky Mikulas managed to snap its three-game losing streak after a 2-0 victory over second-to-last Detva, serving them their sixth defeat in a row. The home team's goalie Patrik Romancik made 24 saves on his second shutout of the season.