The Bears drew over 200,000 spectators throughout the season's home games, and were rewarded for their efforts as the last team to qualify for a spot in the playoffs. In their inaugural season, they stunned top seeded Graz 99ers in the quarter-finals to knock them out in six games, before being eliminated by eventual champions EC Red Bull Salzburg in the semi-finals. In a publicity stunt, Medveščak hosted its first two home games of the 2012–13 EBEL season in September 2012 at the ancient Roman Pula Arena. The first game ended in a 3–2 defeat to HDD Olimpija Ljubljana, and the second game was against Vienna Capitals which resulted in a 4–1 win. On 29 April 2013, the club board announced that Medveščak would move to the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2013–14 season. This led to huge changes in both playing and coaching staff, with almost the entire squad replaced. The team was upgraded with lots of players with NHL experience, while Canadian Mark French became the club's new head coach. On 6 September 2013, the Bears opened their debut season in the KHL with an impressive 7–1 win over Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow. On 25 January 2014, Medveščak defeated Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1–0 at Arena Zagreb and qualified for the KHL playoffs in their very first KHL season. In the first round of the playoffs, Medveščak played against later finalist Lev Prague, losing all four games. Medveščak failed to qualify for the playoffs for the next two seasons. In the 2014–15 season, Medveščak took part in the 2014 Spengler Cup in Switzerland, losing all three games. On 13 January 2016, Russian fans threw two bananas on the ice after HC Spartak Moscow lost 4–1 in a KHL match at home to Medveščak Zagreb, targeting Medveščak's player Edwin Hedberg. Hedberg himself admitted he had encountered such behaviour for the first time, adding that "things like this shouldn't happen but unfortunately they do", while Medveščak's head coach, Gordie Dwyer, said that he was upset with the incident, and that "this obviously has no place in sport". Later, Spartak Moscow issued an official apology to both Medveščak and Hedberg, affirming that video cameras at Sokolniki Arena had helped identify two offenders who would be banned from attending games.