Oxford City Stars' play-off hopes suffered another blow as they crashed 5-2 at home to Basingstoke Buffalo, despite taking the lead.

Stars, who were looking to get back to winning ways, got off to the best possible start against the reigning champions, Basingstoke, when Stars' captain Darren Elliott converted a pass from Derek Flint after just 48 seconds.

However, their joy did not last long, as Basingstoke's Anthony Page equalised within 30 seconds.

And it got worse for Oxford when Buffalo took the lead with a powerplay goal from Mark Jordan.

When Basingstoke extended the lead through Simon Beere after 15 minutes it looked like there would be a repeat of the previous week's 9-2 defeat by Invicta Dynamos.

But to Stars' credit they continued to push forward.

Basingstoke notched a fourth goal when Beere scored again early in the second period.

Despite the blow, Oxford were having the best of this session, and Flint pulled them back into the match with a powerplay goal just after the halfway mark.

Stars continued to press, but could not convert their chances, with Craig Astill in the Basingstoke goal having a strong game.

Basingstoke continued to look threatening going forwards, but failed to add to their tally.

The third period was evenly-matched, but when Beere completed his hat-trick in the 53rd minute the game was all but settled.

Oxford took off netminder Jamie Thompson in favour of an extra attacker for the last few minutes, but were still unable to find the net again.

This time it was just one of those nights for Oxford with nothing quite clicking despite their effort - passes were just off line, chances were not taken, and they could not get into any sort of flow.

OXFORD SCORERS

Darren Elliott 1+1, Derek Flint 1+1.