Following a 10-1 thumping at the hands of Tappara, KalPa bounced back well on Wednesday with a comfortable win over Vaasan Sport that saw them edge closer to JYP and Lukko, who could only pick up two-point victories.
Another win in regulation tonight would see the champions draw level on points with JYP in fourth, but a long injury list was really going to challenge their strength in depth going into a second away match in 24 hours.
That seemed to be the case five minutes in, when Assat broke from their own zone with great work between Petteri Riihinen and Patrik Juhola, who played the puck across for Nestor Noiva to hammer into the net.
But it took less than two more minutes for the visitors to click into gear - what looked like a simple clearance from Juuso Ketola was actually an accurate pass right through the middle to Tim Soderlund, who skated away from the Assat defence and drilled in the equaliser.
Neither side could profit from powerplays either side of the 20-minute mark, but what looked to be a key third goal of the game arrived 12 minutes into the second period, and it was the home side who scored it.
Pressure from Jan-Mikael Jarvinen forced KalPa to cough up possession behind their own net, and Sakari Kostilainen was perfectly placed to grab the loose puck and tuck it away to put the Aces ahead again.
The Pori side looked to be giving KalPa every chance of getting back into it with two early penalties in the third period, but the title-holders finally drew level less than seven minutes from time when Jaakko Lantta teed up Ville Ruotsalainen.
And in the final minute, the Kuopio side earned all three points, as Ruotsalainen played the puck deep into the Assat zone for Joona Saarelainen to collect and play across goal for Soderlund to bury with only 18 seconds to play.
That secured a 3-2 win for KalPa, who go fourth, ahead of JYP on head-to-head record, though the Jyvaskyla still have six regular season games left, compared to KalPa's four. Assat remain eighth after successive defeats, as their very slim top four chances effectively ended this evening.