Tappara had rediscovered their form with back-to-back wins following three successive defeats at the start of the month, while JYP's inability to string wins together had seen them drop out of the top four.
The battle between the two was a heated one right from the off - Emil Sylvegard and Antti Tyrvainen were dismissed for fighting after just 17 seconds. Once things cooled, it was clear this game was going to go with the form book.
Henrik Haapala broke the deadlock for the Tampere side in the seventh minute, and Kristian Tanus doubled the lead on a powerplay just over a minute later, following a trip from Daniel Torgersson.
That's how things stayed until the final five minutes of period two, when Tappara made full use of another powerplay through Oiva Keskinen after a cross-check from Trenton Bourque, before holding by Julius Mattila allowed Juuso Puustinen to give JYP hope with eight seconds to play.
But the visitors failed to generate a comeback, and after they removed the goaltender late on, Jyrki Jokipakka sealed the 4-1 win with an empty-netter, only for tempers to flare again in the final minute, as two more players from each side were ejected for fighting.
It's four defeats in six now for JYP, who sit in seventh place, 12 points behind Tappara and - more importantly - four points off the top four, albeit with games in hand.
The gap between Tappara and KooKoo remains four points, as the second-placed side eventually broke Karpat's resistence to win 4-3 at home.
Karpat came into this with confidence following a two-match winning run, and they twice came from behind to equalise in the second period, with Tuomas Salmela making it 3-3 in the final second of the middle period.
The match was heading for overtime, before the Oulu side's hopes were dashed by Jimi Suomi, who scored with 91 seconds of regulation time to play to give the Kuovala team the win - their fourth in a row - as they put six points between themselves and the sides outside the top four.
Karpat remain in 14th place, having failed to narrow the six-point gap between themselves and Pelicans in 12th.
Two goals from Eric Gelinas - including one in overtime - gave fourth-placed Lukko a crucil 3-2 win away at Kiekko-Espoo, putting two points between themselves and Ilves, as KE sit safely in ninth.
One place but nine points further ahead are Assat, who held off a third-period fightback from Jukurit to register a 5-3 win and snap a four-game losing run. Jukurit remain 15th after two losses in a row.
