Genting Casino Coventry Blaze fell to a 2-1 defeat to Belfast Giants at the Skydome as they returned to Elite League action.
Giants came flying out of the traps and took the lead through Kris Beech at 4.31 in a first period which saw them out-shoot Blaze 20-8. 
Mike Forney hit the frame of the goal for Giants and Ned Lukacevic and Mike Quesnele found the bar and post respectively for Blaze.
Mike Radja added a second on the powerplay at 32.21 but Giants then had player-coach Derrick Walser ejected for butt-ending at 46.49 after clashing with Boris Valabik.
Josh Godfrey pulled a goal back for Blaze on the powerplay at 50.40 but, despite calling a time-out and pulling goaltender Brian Stewart, they could not force overtime.
Coach Chuck Weber said: “We had some snap-shots and some good play at times but we were not consistent enough.
“It was the same old thing and I did not think we really worked hard enough. You create your own luck with hard work and we had a few bounces go against us.
“Their first goal was a rebound and their second was a shot which missed by about 20 feet and it bounced off the boards for a tap in.
“We didn’t really start to push until the incident with Boris. That got us going but it came too late. You cannot wait until six minutes into the third period to get going.
“There are a lot of improvements required, we are nowhere near where we need to get to. There is a lot of hard work ahead.”
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