The First Game in this Champions Hockey League Round of 16 match-up between ZSC Lions Zurich and the Straubing Tigers ended with the Swiss side securing a 4-2 aggregate lead. The Germans kept it close for most of the contest, but three unanswered goals by Zurich have given the Swiss some breathing room heading into their Return Game.

With six minutes to play in the opening stanza, it was Denis Malgin breaking the ice for visitors as he deposited a behind-the-back feed from Chris Baltisberger. The play began when Mikko Lehtonen's one-timer from the point bounced off the pads of Zane McIntyre, Baltisberger scooped up the rebound and dished it to Malgin who slid it five-hole to open the scoring.

Straubing struggled to generate much of anything as the Swiss continued to dictate the pace of the play through the first 20 minutes, outshooting the German side 14-8.

The hosts, however, would go on to follow up their less-than-stellar showing in the first with a two-goal effort in the second.

Travis St. Denis got his club on the board when he wristed one far side past Šimon Hrubec. Joshua Samanski skated the puck in with speed before sending it back to a trailing St. Denis who wired it home for his first of the season. Tim Brunnhuber then made it a 2-1 game three minutes later when he corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone and powered his way down the near side before sliding a backhander between Hrubec's pads.

Near the end of the middle frame, it was Zurich evening things up on the powerplay. Lehtonen and Malgin claimed their second point of the night and Sven Andrighetto registered his fourth goal of the competition when the forward rifled a one-timer that went off the post and in.

The Swiss broke the deadlock in the third when Juho Lammikko found the net for his second of the campaign at 48:58 as he tipped in a cross-crease feed from Jesper Frödén to give his team the lead for a second time on the night.

Malgin increased the goal gap to two when he cleaned up a rebound in front to make it 4-2. This would be the last tally of the night as a late-game push by Straubing failed to produce any results. Still, the Germans have a chance to continue their bid for the European Trophy with a solid bounce-back effort next week.