Red Bull Salzburg kicked off their Champions Hockey League campaign with a win over the Cardiff Devils which see’s them move straight up to the top of Group G after the first game day. It was a great start for the visiting side as Dominique Henrich scored two quick goals midway through the first period, with a third following from John Hughes to see Salzburg take a 3 – 0 lead into the second period. After some penalty trouble early in the second frame, Michael Schiechl finally added another for Salzburg on the powerplay, as the Devils penalty kill looked impressive all night, just conceding once with a man in the box.

Cardiff did manage to get on the scoresheet midway through the second period with a powerplay goal of their own, Layne Ulmer was all alone in front of net and finally put one past Lukas Herzog, and then Mike Hedden capped of his competitive debut for the Devils with a nice breakaway goal with just 17 seconds left in the period. Cardiff continued to press on in the final frame, but a point shot from Martin Stajnoch gave Salzburg their fifth goal, taking a 5 – 2 win in game one.