In an evenly played defensive game in Zurich, the ZSC Lions got a power-play goal in the second period and an empty-netter late in the third, and Lukas Flueler took care of the other end with a shutout. Read more in Gamecentre.

It was a defensive game and a goaltender's duel between two accomplished veterans – Zurich's Lukas Flueler and Ingolstadt's Timo Pielmeier. Flueler stopped 26 shots and Pielmeier 27, and only one shot beat either one of them all night, and that was by Peto Schappi in the 36th minute, deflecting a shot on the power play past Pielmeier. Schaeppi then assisted on the game's only other goal, an empty-netter by Patrik Bartschi with 1:04 to play. 

"A win is a win, and it's always good to start the CHL with one," said Hans Wallson after his first competitive game behind the ZSC bench. "It was a struggle over 60 minutes – a tough game against a good team which was our first real hockey game this season. We weren't as fresh as I wanted us to be, but we worked hard as a team and found a way to win."

Behind the Ingolstad bench was another coach with CHL experience making his debut with a new team, Tommy Samuelsson. He said, "It was a difficult game. We didn't take advantage of our chances. Two good teams, and the first goal I told the guys before was always going to be crucial. I though their performance was very okay. We just need to score goals, and sadly we didn't do that today."

“We were slightly on top of the game,” said Ingoldstadt alternate captain Thomas Oppenheimer, who had one shot on goal and one minor penalty in the game. “Obviously Zurich also did their best but we should have scored on our chances. If we do so, we have a good chance to win the game. There were enough chances on our as well as on Zurich’s side to win this game. We played well and with high tempo and if we continue like this we should have a good chance to win next time. We can only work on details until Saturday, definitely working on our shots (in the slot) will help us. It’s only details but they need work.”
  
“It was fun,” Norwegian star Patrick Thoresen said about his competitive debut with the ZSC Lions. “I got tired at the end but that’s normal for this time of the year. This was only my second game and the first 'real' game but I think we played pretty good, made some mistakes, but all in all we did a lot of good things. We need more quality in our passing then the speed in our game will pick up even more and from there we can go more on the attack.”