Eisbären Berlin, the reigning DEL champions, opened their Champions Hockey League campaign with a 3-0 road victory over reigning Norwegian champions Storhamar Hamar.

For the most part, the game was pretty defensive but Berlin got an early powerplay and made good on it, with Leonhard Pföderl cutting in front from down low and his cross-pass attempt banking in off the skate of a Storhamar penalty-killer.

Storhamar got a couple of powerplays of their own in the opening period with Lean Bergmann sent off twice, but the home team was unable to convert. Over the course of the game, Berlin was 1-for-3 with the man advantage and Storhamar was 0-for-3.

Die Eisbären nearly doubled their lead in the last minute of the first period when Henrik Fayen-Vestavik reacted quickly to a deflection right in front and then Storhamar got perhaps their best chance in the first minute of the second period when Andreas Hjelm got a partial breakaway but was unable to slide the puck under the pad of Jonas Stettmer.

Just past the game’s midpoint, Berlin went up 2-0 when Jonas Müller perfectly teed up a Mitchell Reinke one-timer that went through a crowd and Fayen-Vestavik didn’t pick up in time.

With a two-goal lead, Berlin played even more conservatively, aiming to keep possession of the puck rather than generate more offence, even on their two powerplays, which served to take precious time away from Storhamar.

Just seconds after their last powerplay expired, Korbinian Geibel put the game away with the 3-0 goal at 56:39.