Play-off champions Genting Casino Coventry Blaze made a disappointing start to the Elite League season as they were beaten 6-0 by Fife Flyers in Kirkcaldy.
A four-goal middle session took the game away from Blaze, who had summer signing Drew Fisher in the line-up for the first time.
Justin Fox took advantage of Boris Valabik’s interference minor to put Flyers ahead on the powerplay at 12.32 before two goals in 77 seconds from Ryan Dingle (28.47) and Michael Dorr (30.04) prompted a Blaze time-out. 
But Patrick Cullen (31.21) made it 4-0 and Jeff Lee added another on the powerplay at 37.39 with Chris Lawrence binned for cross-checking.
Lee rounded off the scoring at 43.24 with Flyers netminder David Brown posting a 19-save shut-out.
Coach Chuck Weber said: “It was not the start we wanted and we got embarrassed by a team who worked harder than us.
“We got outworked to every puck, they went to the net, we played the perimeter and were slow – it was a wake-up call for us.
“This is the new age of the Elite League and any one of the 10 teams can win on any night if they work hard. It does not matter where any team finished last season.
“We did not generate a thing and there were a lot of passengers. We stepped out thinking we are better than we are.”
The sides meet again at the Skydome tomorrow night (5.15pm face-off) and Weber added: “We will see how they respond to getting embarrassed.
“Fife will come out hard and we have to make sure we work even harder. We need to man up and be willing to outwork them.”
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