Ian Blake’s hat-trick helped Edinburgh Capitals SNL get their league campaign off to a flier as they crushed Moray Typhoons.

Still smarting after missing out on the title last season, the Caps sent out a message to the rest of the league with this result and will look to carry on in this vein of form.

With their semi-final place assured in the Autumn Cup, Edinburgh turned their attention to league matters and by the end of the first period, were very much in control.

Joel Gautschi opened the scoring after eight minutes with Tyler Plews, making his SNL debut for the Caps, adding a second.

Gautschi increased the lead to three on the powerplay, with Ian Blake adding number four before the opening 20 minutes were up.

Moray hit back through Gavin Millar and Fraser Munro as they began to close the gap, before Craig Main was ejected from the game for abuse of officials.

But they were soon back on track as Blake added his second of the game to open up a 5-2 advantage over the Elgin-based side.

Mark Paterson and Blake’s hat-trick goal, both short-handed, were the icing on the cake as Scott Neil’s side confirmed the points early in the third period.

James Aitkenhead nabbed a third for Moray, but it was nothing more than a consolation as the Caps got off to the best possible start to the SNL regular season.