The Germans battled back from a two-goal deficit early on as Adler Mannheim went on to score four unanswered goals to best Italian side HC Bolzano 4-2 in their 2023/24 Champions Hockey League season-opener.

Shots on goal heavily favoured Mannheim but it was Bolzano who struck first when Bradley McClure slid home a cross-crease feed from Michael Halmo to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Halmo received the puck in the neutral zone before skating it down the wing and finding McClure who was crashing the net to beat Felix Brückmann.

The Germans had their chances to tie it up but were unable to solve Niklas Svedberg as the first period came to a close with Mannheim leading in the shots category 13-6.

Halmo notched his second point of the night to extend Bolzano's lead near the 13-minute mark of the second. Bolzano got the puck to the blueline where Davis Vandane fired it towards the net and Halmo tipped the shot past Brückmann to give his side some insurance.

Mannheim continued to battle back and eventually cut the deficit in half thanks to a Matthias Plachta goal on the man-advantage. Plachta took a feed from Linden Vey before guiding it into the net for his first of the 2023/24 campaign.

Seven minutes later, Jordan Murray levelled the score at two apiece off a wrister from between the hash marks. David Wolf found the defenceman streaking into the slot, dished him the puck and Murray rifled it into the back of the net to bring the sides even as the second period came to a close.

Third period action got underway with Mannheim taking their first lead of the night at 45:11 when Wolf pounced on a loose puck in the crease after a scramble in front to make it a 3-2 game. Svedberg made the initial save but was unable to control the puck leaving it open for the German to deposit it into the back of the cage.

In the dying minutes, Bolzano pulled their netminder to get the extra attacker on the ice, but the hosts staved off the attack and took a two-goal lead off a Jyrki Jokipakka empty-netter. A strong start ended in disappoint for the Italians as they fell to Mannheim on Game Day 1.