KAC Klagenfurt and Fribourg-Gottéron each won and lost in their first two Champions Hockey League games of the season.

Klagenfurt opened with a solid 4-2 road victory over the Rouen Dragons but got off to a slow start against a tough Färjestad Karlstad opponent and it cost them. Conceding two powerplay goals on the same first-period penalty put them behind 3-0 and they never recovered, losing 6-2.

Klagenfurt have so far been led offensively by Nicholas Petersen with three points made up of two goals. On the defensive side of things, Thimo Nickl is one of three players to lead the CHL with four hits, Mathias From has five blocked shots, and Danish defenceman Jesper Jensen Aabo is eighth in CHL ice time at 22:45 per game. Veteran goaltender Sebastian Dahm, formerly of the Danish national team, has played both of Klagenfurt’s games so far and has a save percentage of 86.89.

Against a Norwegian and British opponent so far, Fribourg probably would like to have more than four points, but still find themselves in contention for the Playoffs. They opened at home against the Sheffield Steelers and barely escaped with three points, with Killian Mottet’s second goal of the game in the first minute of the third period the difference in a 4-3 win. Then on the road against Storhamar Hamar, Fribourg outshot the home team 31-20 through 65 minutes of hockey but neither side scored – Storhamar eventually prevailed in a shootout.

Fribourg’s top scorer after two games is Swedish forward Lucas Wallmark with four points – all obviously from the Sheffield game – while Mottet is their only player with two goals. Linemate Marcus Sörensen leads the team with eight penalty minutes, and all three mentioned players are +4 and are, interestingly, the team’s top three players in terms of ice time, ahead of any defenceman. Defenceman Andreas Borgman is the team’s leader in shots on goal (5) and hits (3). As a team, Fribourg ranks second with 11 hits per game and is one of eight teams that doesn’t yet have a powerplay goal or shorthanded goal.