Gap made a glorious CHL debut in a 1-goal loss to Zurich, Lukko needed a shootout to get past Fribourg, and Sami Aittokallio and Leonardo Genoni earned the first two shutouts of the season for Karpat and Davos, respectively.
Gap Rapaces 4–5 ZSC Lions Zurich
HIGHLIGHTS
In what might have been the game of the night, the Gap Rapaces just wouldn't go away against the one-time European champion ZSC Lions. Urged on by their festive fans who never stopped singing the whole night, they took the early lead, Zurich battled back to take the lead and twice led by two goals, but the home team kept closing the Gap. Eventually, they fell by a single goal, but it was a tremendous effort. Marc-Andre Bernier was their offensive sparkplug with 2 goals and 2 assists, while Chris Foucault scored 3 times for Zurich – the fourth hat-trick of the day.
Zurich coach Marc Crawford thought, "Offensively we played well, defensively we weren't very good and didn't kill penalties very well. That would be what we need to improve – our penalty killing. One of the great things about playing early games is that you can look at what you're trying to accomplish, and show you players what they need to improve on."
Fribourg-Gotteron 3–4 Lukko Rauma (SO)
HIGHLIGHTS
These CHL playoff teams from last year engaged in the first overtime of this year's CHL, and then the first shootout, which Lukko won. Most of the scoring was done early on, with Fribourg ahead 3–2 after 7:23 of play, when Eetu Koski gave Lukko the lead on the power play. After that there was only one more goal before the shootout, when Nathan Marchon tied it in the 28th minute. Aaron Gagnon, Lukko's big offensive player, scored in back-to-back shootout attempts to give his team the victory.
Farjestad Karlstad 0–4 HC Davos
HIGHLIGHTS
Swiss champions HC Davos are off to a good start in the CHL, going into Karlstad and shutting out fabled Farjestad. After a scoreless first period, they broke the game open with three goals in the second, then put it away with one in the third. Dario Simion and captain Andreas Ambuhl had 1 goal and 1 assist each, while Leonardo Genoni stopped all 25 shots he faced.
"I'm surprised that we came off with a 4–0 win against a team like Farjestad," said Marcus Paulsson, a former Farjestad player who scored one of Davos's goals. "They have really good players throughout their organization and will come up big in future games, but didn't really reach their standards tonight. It felt great to score but I'm not very satisfied with my game overall, but we won and that's what's important. The CHL is a new thing for us and it feels great to have started it off this good!"
Krefeld Pinguine 0–2 Karpat Oulu
HIGHLIGHTS
The game in Krefeld was a goaltending duel between Tomas Duba and Sami Aittokallio, with Aittokallio stopping all 32 shots he faced, and Duba 31 of 33. Ivan Huml opened the scoring early in the second period and Mika Niemi added to the lead shorthanded early in the third.
"It wasn’t easy game," thought Karpat forward Mika Pyorala. "There were lot of penalties so it was hard to get into the game but I think the key was that we stuck together. There were five guys all the time close to each other and that’s how we get them under pressure. I think that‘s why we won."