Nuremberg was up by two halfway through the opening stanza after tallies from defenseman Stefan Schauer and Mike Green. Behind Adam Svoboda's goaltending, the Ice Tigers held on for a 2-1 (2-0, 0-1, 0-0) home win. The Czech recorded 24 saves on the night.
At the other end of the ice, Giguere posted good numbers, too, stopping 27 of the 29 shots he faced. The two early goals were not his fault. Just 3:47 into the contest, Stefan Schauer ripped a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle over Giguere's glove hand to give the Ice Tigers a 1-0 lead.
"I guess my shot got slighty deflected", said Schauer. "Thus it was hard to stop for Giguere. Of course, it's nice to score on a goalie of his caliber."
The Tigers found the back of the Freezer net again at the 9:24-mark. Mike Green cut through the defense and beat Giguere high to the glove side again to double Nuremberg's lead to 2-0.
"I was impressed. This team came out with a lot of speed", said Giguere. "For my first game in nine months, I was happy with the way I played tonight."
Giguere made a number of big saves, particularly when Nuremberg was pressing hard to put the game out of reach in the second period.
Hamburg failed to cash in on its opportunities. Nuremberg's Tomas Martinec got ejected after a vicious hit to Clayton Young's head. But a shot that bounced off the framework was all Hamburg produced during the ensuing five-minute power-play. Young reportedly was not injured, but got taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons.
Midway through the middle frame, Brad Purdie got robbed by Svoboda on a breakaway. Bobby House eventually put the Freezers on the board, 2-1, with 5:23 remaining in the period, backhanding home the rebound of a shot from younster Tobias Artmeier.
Trailing by just a goal, Hamburg hardly created any chances in the final period. With the clock winding down and an extra attacker on the ice, Purdie's shot from the doorstep missed the open net by just a few inches.
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