On the CHL's 2016-17 opening night, Karpat Oulu and SC Bern grabbed road wins, while Yunost Minsk and ZSC Lions Zurich won on their home ice.
Vitkovice Ostrava 2–4 Karpat Oulu
Karpat start off the new CHL season with a win, but Vitkovice gave them a good battle on their home ice. Jesse Saarinen scored the first goal of the CHL season and added an assist in the second, while Cramo Top Scorer Mika Pyorala also had a goal and an assist for the victors. In goal, newly re-acquired Jussi Rynnas stopped 29 of 31 shots, while Patrik Bartosak stopped 18 of 21 at the other end. Rostislav Olesz got Vitkovice on the board early in the second period and then assisted on Karol Sloboda's goal with 1:37 remaining to bring Vitkovice within one, but a buzzer-beating empty-netter from Toni Kahkonen finished them off.
HC Kosice 3–6 SC Bern
It was a game were power plays dominated – both teams scored three times with the man advantage, but Bern also scored three times at even strength. The visitors from the Swiss capital jumped out to a 2-0 lead and kept the lead the rest of the night. In particular, Bern capitalized in the first minutes of periods – Simon Moser's nice 2-0 goal in the first minute of the second period and Eric Blum's game-winner in the first minute of the third were crushing blows.
Yunost Minsk 4–3 BK Mlada Boleslav
Mlada Boleslav played a strong road game, out-shooting Yunost 27-18, but Dmitri Milchakov was strong in goal and backstopped his team to a win. Jakub Osrava scored Boleslav's first two goals, while Vadim Yerokho, Jesse Niinimaki, Maxim Parfeyevets, Alexei Yefimenko and Viktor Turkin all had two-point games for Yunost. Turkin's goal broke a 3-3 deadlock on a two-man advantage with only 2:09 to play.
ZSC Lions Zurich 2–0 ERC Ingolstadt
It was a defensive game and a goaltender's duel between two accomplished veterans – Zurich's Lukas Flueler and Ingolstadt's Timo Pielmeier. Flueler stopped 26 shots and Pielmeier 27, and only one shot beat either one of them all night, and that was by Peto Schaeppi in the 36th minute, deflecting a shot on the power play past Pielmeier. Schaeppi then assisted on the game's only other goal, an empty-netter by Patrick Baertschi with 1:04 to play.