Basingstoke Buffalo 5, Oxford City Stars 7

THE Buffalo still have a chance to finish second in the Southern play-off group, despite losing on Sunday night.

The Gowrings/Safeway-backed side have to beat Milton Keynes Thunder tomorrow (6.30pm) to end the season on a high.

Disappointed Buffalo coach Ed Campbell said: "We still have a shot for second spot, but we lacked intensity and allowed Oxford, who are a good, disciplined skating team, the chance to play their game.

"I think against Milton Keynes will be a different story and we certainly want to finish with a win."

In an entertaining end-to-end game, Oxford opened the scoring at 6:18 when Canadian Derek Flint fed the visitors' man-of-the-match Gary Slevin to score from the right wing.

The Buffalo equalised when Mark Jordan and Drew Campbell combined for Anthony Page to backhand in at the far post at 9:04.

The second period was only 26 seconds old, when the first penalty of the contest was called on Oxford. However, disaster struck as Slevin latched on to a Matt Roberts pass and, despite Vicky Robbins making the initial save, he netted the rebound at 21:46.

On the same powerplay, the Buffalo equalised when man-of-the-match Simon Beere scored from close range with Rob Etheridge assisting.

The visitors regained the lead from a super individual goal by Canadian forward Dan Prachar.

A minute later, Oxford were on the powerplay and a Buffalo break-out ended when Luke Plasted took the puck off Page and sent Prachar clear to make it 4-2 at 33:25.

The home side drew level with two goals in 13 seconds. Tom Pope netted from close range, finishing a move involving Ollie Beckwith and Etheridge.

Then Beere stole the puck from Plasted and skated in to score into the roof of the net.

The Buffalo now had the upper hand but were unable to add to their tally so at the second buzzer it was 4-4.

The final session saw the visitors dominate and Robbins did well to be beaten just twice. At 42:46 Slevin completed his hat-trick. The final penalty went to Oxford, who scored short-handed with another Prachar individual strike.

The Buffalo pulled a goal back on the same powerplay as Campbell found Mark Jordan to score at 56:56.

With 14 seconds left, Robbins was pulled for the extra skater but Oxford's Elliott scored an empty-net goal.