It's five wins in their last six now for Assat and this was the most comfortable of the lot, taking the lead with just over two minutes on the clock through Jonne Tammela on an early powerplay, before Patrik Juhola made it 2-0 midway through the opening period.
Tammela scored his second just past the midpoint of the game, then completed his hattrick early in the third period to allow the Pori side to cruise to victory. Roope Talaja put the icing on the cake to make it 5-0 with four minutes to play, as Jan Bednar needed only make 15 saves in his shutout.
It's a 10th win from 13 games for the Aces, with every one settled by the 60-minute mark. After back-to-back wins, it's a return to form for IFK Helsinki, who drop a place, back into the bottom two.
Second-placed JYP were also at home to a struggling side, but they surrendered their comfortable lead over Vaasan Sport before eventually getting the job done 5-4 after overtime.
Oskari Hult cancelled out Pekka Jormakka's opener, but then goals from Valtteri Ojantakanen, Leevi Tukiainen and Santeri Huovila put JYP 4-1 up six minutes into the second period.
A quick response from Charles Bertrand gave the visitors hope, which only grew five minutes into the third period when Philip Granath made it 4-3. Remarkably, the Vaasa side completed the comeback with just over a minute to play when Sebastian Stalberg sent the game to overtime.
However, Sport could not complete the turnaround, and with 01:11 on the overtime clock, Ojantakanen grabbed his second of the game to give the Hurricanes a third win in succession, and the second in a row secured in the extra period. A point takes Sport out the bottom two on goal difference.
Bottom side Ilves joined Vaasan Sport and Helsinki on 15 points, as they also came out of overtime as the losing side, going down 4-3 to TPS Turku, who earned their first win in three. Sitting 11th, if TPS fail to win their next match in regulation, it will be a month since they last did so.
The form side in the division until yesterday, it's consecutive losses in 24 hours for SaiPa, who conceded two late goals to lose 4-2 away to Lukko, who move up into third having won four of their last five in the league and backed up that form with two wins in Europe in the meantime.
SaiPa have been knocked down to fifth, overtaken by Kiekko-Espoo who required a 2-1 penalty shootout win to take a 4-3 victory away at Tappara, consigning the early leaders to a fifth loss in their last six.
But only four points separate fourth-placed Kiekko-Espoo and 11th-placed TPS, as Jukurit edged Pelicans 3-2, champions KalPa continued their inconsistency with a 4-2 victory over KooKoo and Hameenlinna got revenge for defeat by Karpat yesterday by winning today's meeting 2-1.
Review all the scorers and stats from today's Liiga action on Flashscore.
