The Chiefs cantered over for 10 tries in a 68-12 drubbing of Moana Pasifika on Saturday – the most lop-sided Super Rugby scoreline in more than a year.
Winger Emoni Narawa bagged a hat-trick of tries in Hamilton while fly-half Damian McKenzie landed nine of his 10 conversion attempts.
The winning margin was the highest in the competition since the Hurricanes hammered Moana 59-0 in round five last year.
The home side unleashed an ominous display of attacking rugby to rebound from the previous week's loss to the Crusaders and pick up a fifth win from seven games.
It was a third consecutive heavy defeat for Moana, with coach Tana Umaga's team having conceded 175 points in those matches.
The visitors struggled to contain the creativity of All Blacks playmaker McKenzie and the athleticism of Narawa and regular winger Etene Nanai-Seturo, who produced a sparkling display at fullback in his 50th Super Rugby match.
"Coming off last week's performance, the coaches put the hard word on us," said Nanai-Seturo, who was among the try-scorers.
"We had to dominate up front and we did that, so the backs got to do their thing out wide."
Backs scored eight tries for the Chiefs, who led 28-0 at halftime in a rollicking preparation for next week's match against the competition-leading Hurricanes.
