After both Ilves Tampere and ZSC Lions Zurich won on Game Day 1 of the 2024/25 season of the Champions Hockey League it was bound to be a short-lived run for on of them. With the game now in the rear-view mirror, we now know that Zurich's effective and dependable special units played a key role in them taking their second set of three points in a row.

It took Zurich just over 10 minutes to find twine and first to strike was D-man Patrick Geering near enough from the blue line. The visiting reigning Swiss champions offered home team Ilves two powerplays within the opening 20 minutes of the game - both successfully killed off.

Ilves' Erik Borg got called for boarding at the start of the second period and offered Zurich a chance to go a man up and unlike Ilves before, the Swiss proved lethal as Rudolfs Balcers made it 2-0 at 25:48. Three more penalties were dished out in the middle frame before the two teams left for the locker rooms for the final time - the last being given to Zurich's Derek Grant for interference - and this powerplay costed the visitors as Ilves were finally able to get up on the board thanks to a Daniel Gazda strike.

With the score 2-1 in Zurich's favour, both teams headed out for the final set of 20. Ilves pushed at the start of the period, creating a lot of chances within the first five minutes of game play back. Sven Andrighetto was forced into action and was called for hooking at 43:52, but this one was killed off by the Swiss team perfectly.

The changing pace of the game and lots of activity from Ilves away from the safety of their own net meant made just enough space for Dean Kukan to get one past Jakub Málek. The Czech goaltender in Ilves' services was beaten again with four minutes of game time left after a similar situation in which Zurich players were allowed to come in way too close to the net. With minutes and seconds ticking down, Ilves did their best to make it at least 4-2, even sending Málek to the bench briefly, but ultimately the final buzzer sounded to the tune of 4-1.