The First Game in this Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals series between ZSC Lions Zurich and Genève-Servette culminated in Zurich taking a 6-1 aggregate lead as Rudolfs Balcers secured two tallies and Šimon Hrubec stopped 21 of 22 shots to earn his ninth win of the season.

Zurich found themselves up by one just 1:18 in when Yannick Zehnder pounced on a rebound and put it past Antti Raanta to open the scoring. Raanta fought off the initial shot by Juho Lammikko but directed the puck right to Zehnder who was driving to the net as he swatted it into the open cage.

Midway through the period, the visitors extended their lead with a brilliant set up play by Jarno Kärki who dished a behind-the-back feed to Nicolas Baechler who then beat Raanta clean on the glove side. The play developed when Dean Kukan lifted a shot towards the net as Kärki grabbed the rebound and sent it to a wide open Baechler who registered his second marker of the season.

The start of the second period saw the visiting side continue to pour it on as they manufactured their third goal of the game in the opening minute when Mikko Lehtonen shot the puck from below the red line that banked off Raanta's body and into the back of the net.

A three-goal lead would become a four-goal advantage for Zurich when Rudolfs Balcers completed a tic-tac-toe set up on the powerplay at 27:08. The Swiss entered the zone clean as Sven Andrighetto slid it to Denis Malgin who found Balcers all alone at the top of the crease where he lifted it past the netminder to make it 4-0 and chase Raanta from the crease.

Moments later, Balcers made it 5-0 when he received a pass from Derek Grant before finagling his way through the slot and wristing it past Robert Mayer. Then Grant increased the score to 6-0 when he dangled in close and slid a backhander by Genève's netminder on the powerplay.

The hosts would eventually break through and reduce the aggregate deficit to five goals when Eric Schneller rifled it past Hrubec's glove from the high slot eight and a half minutes into the third. But that would be all from the reigning CHL Champions as Genève failed to muster any consistency throughout the contest and will now have a mountain to climb in their Return Game next week.