What started as the bottom line for ZSC Lions Zurich emerged as their most prolific over the course of the game as they helped the hosts defeat GKS Katowice 5-0.

The home crowd had something to cheer about 2:19 in when Willi Riedi received a tape-to-tape pass from Livio Truog in the neutral zone before splitting the defence and whizzing one past John Murray to open the scoring.

After 20 minutes the Swiss side were outshooting the Poles 8-4 as Zurich dictated the pace from puck drop.

They continued controlling the play in period two and managed to extend their lead when Dean Kukan stepped into a sliding puck off the draw and rifled it by the American netminder seven minutes in.

Two minutes later the horn sounded again as Justin Sigrist succeeded on his wraparound attempt to pad Zurich's lead for a second time.

Murray managed to protect the cage for the rest of period despite being peppered with shots as the Swiss added 15 more attempts in the middle stanza.

Katowice had a golden opportunity to cut into Zurich's lead on a breakaway 45 seconds into the third, but Šimon Hrubec, who hadn't been tested much to this point, made the pad save to keep their goal column empty.

Christian Marti would add insult to injury moments later when he boomed one from the point that found its way past Murray to make the gap four goals.

A Kyen Sopa boarding call gave the visitors their second extended man-advantage at 45:13. The Poles, however, didn't muster much and as their powerplay came to an end Zurich succeeded where Katowice failed, finding the net to increase their lead to 5-0. Mikko Lehtonen, who registered two assists so far, beat the opposing netminder all but guaranteeing his team's second victory.

While the Swiss would claim victory, the night would end on a sour note for Hrubec as his shutout bid was ended by the stick of Katowice's leading scorer Grzegorz Pasiut.

Nevertheless, with their win over their Group D opponents, Zurich were able to enlarge the point gap in the standings and hold on to second place.