- Eight different goal scorers for Genève
- Rouen's PK only bright spot for the French
- Swiss outshot the French 42-13
Swiss champions Genève-Servette served up a statement win against French champions the Rouen Dragons in a definitive 9-1 victory that saw eight different players secure a goal for the hosts in this lopsided affair.
The home side exploded in the first period, securing three goals in the span of four minutes to take a comfortable 3-0 lead in the early going.
Genève's points leader Sami Vatanen opened the scoring with his fifth point and first goal of the campaign when he wired one from above the near circle past Matija Pintarič to get the hosts on the board at 3:14. Then, Arnaud Jacquemet finished off a beautiful behind-the-net feed from former NHLer Valtteri Filppula. 21 seconds later, Teemu Hartikainen hammered home a one-timer from the slot.
As the second period got underway, another surge of goals were on the horizon for the hosts.
Three and a half minutes in, Guillaume Maillard's shot from the slot gave Genève a four-goal advantage. Daniel Winnik made it five when he delivered a backhander less than a minute later.
The Swiss made it 6-0 at 25:53 following a tic-tac-toe play that ended with Vincent Praplan depositing the puck into the back of the net. Marc-Antoine Pouliot would go on to secure the Swiss' seventh, wristing another past the Slovenian netminder and chasing him from the crease as Tonin Caubet made his Champions Hockey League debut.
But it wouldn't take long for Pouliot to solve the new netminder as he picked up the loose change in front and made no mistake to extend his club's lead to eight.
The final frame began with the French putting a dent in the hosts' lead when Marcel Haščák found the net for Rouen's first.
Momentum immediately switched back to the Swiss side, however, when Marco Miranda became the eighth Genève player to light the lamp to make it 9-1.
The rest of the period played out much the same of the first two with the home team generating chance after chance as the French tried to play catch-up.