Adler Mannheim won the DEL championship last season and started this season off in convincing fashion as well with a dominant 6-1 victory over the Vienna Capitals. With many of their own traveling fans behind them and showing support, Die Adler announced their presence in the Austrian capital with authority, scoring three goals in the first period and two more in the second to take control.

Mannheim went to work on the first power play of the game and, although they didn’t score, they kept up the pressure and it didn’t take long for Janik Moser to open the scoring. Just past the 14-minute mark, defenceman Patrick Peter had a great chance to tie the game for the Caps and things might have gone differently if he had, but Swedish netminder Johan Gustafsson made a big pad save on his point-blank attempt. Then just a minute and a half later, German international Lean Bergmann made it 2-0 after a nifty play by Borna Rendulić, and less than two minutes after that on another Mannheim power play, 17-year-old Tim Stützle made it 3-0 on a screenshot.

If Vienna had any thoughts of a comeback in the first intermission, Brent Raedke erased them with the 4-0 goal in the first minute of the second period. With the score 5-0 after two periods, Austrian international Bernhard Starkbaum took over for U.S. Olympian Ryan Zapolski in the Vienna goal.

There was only one question left and Mike Zalewski answered it with 5:13 to play to make it 5-1 to give the home fans something to cheer about, but that's as close as the Capitals would come on what was otherwise Mannheim's night. Bergmann rounded out the scoring with his second of the game with 3:30 left.