ngMock complains unexpected request when request is expected

My ng app is working fine, but I am trying to write a ngMock test for my controller; I am basically following along the example on angular's website: http://ift.tt/V2E0X0$httpBackend

The problem I am running into is that it complains about unexpected request even when request is being expected.

PhantomJS 1.9.8 (Windows 8 0.0.0) NotificationsController should fetch notification list FAILED

Error: Unexpected request: GET Not valid for testsapi/AspNetController/AspNetAction Expected GET api/AspNetController/AspNetAction

What I do not get is that, on the error line, why is there a "tests" word appended before my service url? I thought it should be sending to 'api/AspNetController/AspNetAction' What am I doing wrong here. I can't find any one else running into the same problem as me through google.

here is the controller code

angular.module('MainModule')
    .controller('NotificationsController', ['$scope', '$location', '$timeout', 'dataService',
        function ($scope, $location, $timeout, dataService) {
            //createRequest returns a request object
            var fetchNotificationsRequest = dataService.createRequest('GET', 'api/AspNetController/AspNetAction', null);
            //sendRequest sends the request object using $http
            var fetchNotificationsPromise = dataService.sendRequest(fetchNotificationsRequest);
            fetchNotificationsPromise.then(function (data) {
                //do something with data.
            }, function (error) {
                alert("Unable to fetch notifications.");
            });
    }]
);

Test code

describe('NotificationsController', function () {
    beforeEach(module('MainModule'));
    beforeEach(module('DataModule')); //for data service

    var $httpBackend, $scope, $location, $timeout, dataService;

    beforeEach(inject(function ($injector) {

        $httpBackend = $injector.get('$httpBackend');

        $scope = $injector.get('$rootScope');
        $location = $injector.get('$location');
        $timeout = $injector.get('$timeout');
        dataService = $injector.get('dataService');

        var $controller = $injector.get('$controller');

        createController = function () {
            return $controller('NotificationsController', {
                '$scope': $scope,
                '$location': $location,
                '$timeout': $timeout,
                'dataService': dataService,
            });
        };
    }));

    afterEach(function () {
        $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingExpectation();
        $httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingRequest();
    });

    it('should fetch notification list', function () {
        $httpBackend.expectGET('api/AspNetController/AspNetAction');        //this is where things go wrong
        var controller = createController();

        $httpBackend.flush();
    });

});