The defending European Club Champions have taken a major step towards returning to the Semi-Finals at least after a 4-0 home-ice win in the First Game of the Quarter-Finals. The visiting Pinguins Bremerhaven actually outshot Genève-Servette by a solid margin, but veteran goaltender Antti Raanta was spectacular. In three Champions Hockey League games, Raanta has two shutouts and allowed only one goal.

The first goal came in the ninth minute, with Sami Vatanen centring from behind the net and Theodor Lennström tapping in the loose puck on the backhand.

Bremerhaven got the game’s first powerplay with four minutes to play in the first period and had some great chances to tie it but Raanta and the Genève PK units stood tall. Just seconds after killing off the penalty, Markus Granlund got a breakaway for Genève and beat Maximilian Franzreb between the legs to make it 2-0.

In the final minute of the opening period, Bremerhaven nearly got one back as Dominik Uher’s shot from the high slot looked labelled but Raanta robbed him with the glove.

Six minutes into the second period, Genève were handed their first two powerplays of the night when Fabian Herrmann was called for both tripping and hooking on the same sequence. Late in the first penalty, Vatanen put his team up 3-0 by sending a seeing-eye wrister from the point that sailed past a screened Franzreb.

Midway through the third period, Genève looked to increase their lead on the powerplay but Miha Verlič intercepted a pass and skated in alone on Raanta, but the Finnish keeper came up big again, denying the backhand attempt.

Bremerhaven killed off the penalty but with 7:18 to play, Genève went up 4-0 with Alessio Bertaggia converting the set-up by Marco Miranda.

These two teams are now headed back to where they began this CHL season, as Bremerhaven beat Genève 3-2 back on Game Day 1 of the Regular Season. However, a one-goal home-ice win won’t be enough for the Pinguins this time as they'll have four to make up.