Oxford City Stars' hopes of lifting the English National League Cup were dashed as they went down 9-4 to Sheffield Scimitars in the second leg of the final.

Trailing 8-3 from the first leg, Stars were always up against it in Sunday's return at Oxford Ice Rink as they eventually went down 17-7 on aggregate.

Sheffield opened the scoring after eight minutes when Simon Butterworth rounded Oxford netminder Andy Webster before knocking the puck home.

Webster had come into the team after Jamie Thompson broke a collar-bone in training.

Things got worse for Oxford two minutes later when Scimitars' Carl Ashton scored.

Stars hit back with a solo effort from player-coach Dan Prachar and, when Darren Elliott equalised soon after, they seemed to be back in with a chance.

But Sheffield's Ritchie Oliver knocked them back again with two more goals, the second a powerplay effort three seconds from the end of the period.

Sheffield made it 5-2 when Oliver completed a hat-trick in the space of five minutes early in the second period.

Gary Slevin pulled one back for Stars with a powerplay effort, and a minute later Dan Prachar broke out to make it 5-4.

But this was to be Oxford's last goal. Sheffield pulled away again with a Les Millie effort followed by a controversial seventh goal scored by Neil Hardy as the buzzer went for the end of the period.

Oliver hit his fourth goal in the third period and Hardy grabbed his second.

Both teams changed their netminders, with under 19 player Tom Devey shining on his Oxford debut.

He made 15 saves in 14 minutes to prevent any further scoring in the session.

It was a disappointing finish for Oxford, but for a new team they have had an excellent season to be runners-up in both the league and cup.

Oxford scorers: D Prachar 2+0, D Elliott 1+1, G Slevin 1+0, D Carr 0+1, D Flint 0+1.