BRATISLAVA, March 3 -- With two of the top three title contenders losing their Tuesday fixtures, Banska Bystrica's victory over their local rival hockey club of the Town of Zvolen enables it to build the lead on the top of the Tipsport Liga standings to 12 points.

With only five rounds left to play in the final stage of the regular season, the fight for the last two playoff spots remains unchanged as all three teams from the top of the lower group lose their match-ups.

The injury-plagued Slovan Bratislava's crisis deepens as the team from Slovakia's capital loses its fourth match in a row, getting crushed 5-0 by Poprad.

With five different scorers and Tomas Vosvrda's solid 27 saves on his fifth shutout of the season, Poprad jumped from sixth to the fourth spot in the standings, trailing third Kosice by 10 points.

Pierre-Luc Mercier assisted on four of the home team's goals.

Third-ranked Kosice Hockey Club also failed to score, losing 3-0 to a team that's in the zone, Dukla Trencin.

The visitors' goalie Michal Valent made a respectable 28 saves on his fourth shutout of the season, helping his team beat Kosice on the fifth try, at last.

Trencin is in fifth place in the rankings, tied with fourth placed Poprad with 93 points.

In the traditional central-Slovak derby, the reigning champion Banska Bystrica Hockey Club scored two goals within one minute in the second period to edge out neighboring Zvolen 2-1 in the end, cementing its position on top of Tipsport Liga with a 12-point lead and getting ever closer to securing the triumph in the regular season in advance.

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