COVENTRY Blaze dropped to the bottom of the Elite League after finding themselves on the recieving end of a 6-0 thumping on the road at Braehead Clan.
Chuck Weber handed a debut to Slovakian defenceman Igor Bobcek and had Matt Selby in the Saturday’s line-up but they were without injured duo Boris Valabik and Russell Cowley and Kevin Noble (banned).
Ben Davies gave Clan the lead after just 21 seconds and Alex Leavitt doubled their advantage by 12 minutes.
Two second-period markers from Scott Pitt and a Thomas Nesbitt goal saw Clan take control and Matt Heywood scored a sixth to wrap up a comfortable win for the home side.
Coach Chuck Weber said: “I didn’t like our warm-up, we were too lackadaisical. We made an awful start because we were not mentally focused.
“Some key players made mistakes at crucial times and we were unable to recover against a good side.
“I told the boys afterwards there is winning and misery – and I am tired of being miserable.”
Blaze showed an improvement the following evening against Cardiff Devils at the Skydome but fell to a 6-4 defeat in their final Challenge Cup Group B tie.
Ned Lukacevic handed Blaze the lead but Zach Hervato tied the game before goals from Guillaume Doucet (2) and Joey Haddad but the visitors 4-1 ahead.
Blaze showed showed great character to pull level thanks to strikes from Brett Robinson and Carl Lauzon (2), but after Cale Tanaka was ejected for abuse towards an official, Cardiff scored two final period goals to snatch the win.
“I was pleased with the character we showed to battle back from 4-1 down to make it 4-4,” Weber added.
“But the turning point was when we took a bad penalty and gave up a powerplay goal which was preventable. Then on the next shift they score on a bad clearance.
“With the game on the line we cannot take a bad penalty like that. You also cannot lose your cool in that situation, it left us another guy down when we are already playing short.”