Oxford City Stars suffered their third defeat of the end-of-season play-offs when they lost 6-5 away to Streatham Redskins

Despite an improved performance, Stars could not cope with the loss of four forwards, Derek Flint, Gary Slevin, Alan Green and Scott Gough, and three defencemen, Danny Sturgeon, Mark Krater and Trevor Joseph.

Oxford started well with Dan Prachar setting Darren Elliott clear to finish neatly past Noctor in the Streatham goal.

Streatham levelled when a defensive misunderstanding allowed Luke Fitzmaurice to beat Oxford's Andy Webster with a mishit shot.

Streatham's second goal came when a shot from Simon Greaves ricocheted into the net off an Oxford defenceman past a helpless netminder.

Within a few seconds, Perry Bilowes had finished off a good move by the Redskins, but late in the session Prachar scored from long range to make it 3-2 at the first interval.

The second period was scoreless, but in the last minute Oxford's captain Elliott was hit by a two-handed slash to the hip, which left him lying on the ice for several minutes.

The referee, who had not seen the incident, decided to take the second break early and add the outstanding time onto the third session.

Oxford levelled early in the third period when Prachar finished from a Paul Crockett pass

Even though Steve Paris regained the lead for Redskins, there was all still to play for as the game went into the last five minutes.

Streatham looked to have made it safe when Greaves scored on the powerplay.

Oxford withdrew their netminder in favour of another attacking player and the tactic worked when Easy Chalmers flicked home an Elliott pass.

However, Redskins made it 6-4 when Wayne Trunchion slid home.

Although Prachar completed his hat trick, but it came too late.

Streatham: S Greaves 2+0, S Paris 1+2, W Trunchion 1+1, P Bilowes 1+0, L Fitzmaurice 1+0, V Somfaleanu 0+2, R Kowalenko 0+1, D Smith 0+1.

Oxford: D Prachar 3+1, D Elliott 1+2, E Chalmers 1+1, P Crockett 0+2, N Eden 0+1.