Four goals were the amount needed to secure Fribourg-Gottéron‘s victory in tonight’s hard-fought battle against the Sheffield Steelers who themselves scored three times. Both teams displayed exceptional play, making for an exciting match-up from the start.

The action began just 1:16 seconds after the opening face-off, with Sheffield’s Patrick Watling capitalising on a 3-on-2 situation to put the first goal up on the board. Just three minutes later, Daniel Ciampini doubled the visitors' lead, scoring off a rebound from a failed wrap-around attempt by Mark Simpson. However, Fribourg responded quickly, levelling the game in under three minutes, thanks to goals from Wallmark, Mottet, and Sörensen. With little more than two minutes left in the period, the game was back to where it started and tied once again.

The second period experienced a goal draught, despite numerous opportunities, including three powerplays. At 23:49, Sheffield had a prime chance with a 4-on-3 advantage after Fribourg’s Sörensen was called for tripping, accompanied by roughing penalties on both sides. Still, Sheffield couldn't make use of the extra space, and the penalties were successfully killed off. Both teams had more powerplay chances later in the period, but nothing came from them resulting in the period ending goalless.

The final period took off just 55 seconds into gameplay when Fribourg’s Killian Mottet scored his second goal of the night giving the home team the lead once more with a near-perfect shot that left Sheffield’s netminder Matthew Greenfield with no chance.

Sheffield, now playing catch-up, struggled to regain momentum, racking up multiple penalties for holding, delaying the game, and slashing, which only hindered their comeback attempts. As the final buzzer sounded, Fribourg held on to a 4-3 victory to take an important three points on opening night.