German challengers Kölner Haie survived 10 powerplay opportunities from Red Bull Salzburg and came away with a 5-2 win in this Game Day 1 derby of the 2026/27 Champions Hockey League season.

Cologne went on their second powerplay of the night near the 16-minute mark of the first and made good use of it, scoring twice in quick succession. Patrick Russell drew first blood when he tapped one in from the top of the crease off of a Daniel Fischbuch feed, and then Marcel Noebels added another just 29 seconds later with a wrister from the slot. Russell registered his second point of the night when he found the German gliding through the slot and fed him the puck, which Noebels quickly lifted past Atte Tolvanen for his first of the season.

Then in the second, it was CHL veteran Peter Schneider cutting the deficit to one when he lasered a one-timer stick side from the slot. Thomas Raffl got the play started when he knocked a defender off the puck below the red line, took control, and found Schneider coasting into empty space to give his club their first goal of the game.

Six minutes later, Gregor MacLeod responded for the visitors when he received a neutral zone feed, skated down the far side and scored on a wrist shot from just inside the far circle. A break down in communication allowed MacLeod to skate in undefended and register his second point of the contest.

But the Austrians continued to claw their way back on the powerplay. Off the face-off, they had time and space as Raffl found Mario Huber on the doorstep, who easily put it past Janne Juvonen to make it a 3-2 game. 

Their momentum was short-lived, however, as Louis-Marc Aubry was able to secure his team's fourth of the night with a short-handed tally less than two minutes later.

The Germans maintained their scoring ways in the third when Noebels secured his second tuck of the game, and with that, Cologne cemented their first CHL win dating back to September 7th, 2014.