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Oxford City Stars, missing defencemen Nick Eden and Andy Cox, crashed 7-1 at Coventry Blaze in South Division A.

Against a Coventry side, reinforced by Elite team players, netminder Stephen Fone and Joe Henry, Stars battled hard, and the final scoreline should have been much closer.

Stars started well with a fast pace that the home team could not match.

But once they let the pace slacken, Blaze took command of the game.

They took the lead through Henry on a power play, while Stars' Lee Featherstone was serving a penalty for elbowing. That was the only goal of the first period.

Coventry scored twice more in the second.

The first came when Kieran Papps's slap-shot saw the puck bounce up off unlucky James Scaife's pad and come down, hitting Skaife on the back before going into the net.

Coventry made it 3-0 when Luke Curtis found the stick of Matt Halford, who slipped the ball home.

After home skipper Aram Todd made it 4-0 29 seconds into the third period, Stars coach Darryl Morvan brought on Kevin McGurk for netminder Skaife. But McGurk could not stop Henry making it 5-0.

Oxford's goal came 18 seconds later in the 44th minute.

Dave Carr passed to Joe Edwards, who in only his second game for the Stars, skated around a few defenders before feeding Kent Johnson, who flipped a shot past Fone.

With Featherstone going off injured, Stars' defence was further depleted.

Coventry capitalised with two more goals. Henry completed his hat-trick before Tom Ledgard wrapped it around the net to make it 7-1.

Because of Oxford's shortage of defencemen, Skaife and McGurk were left hung out to dry.

Afterwards Morvan said: "It was probably our worst performance this season.

"We seemed to looked tired and lacked cohesion, with only brief flashes of the type of hockey we are capable of.

"Even when we did make good chances we were unable to convert them "Although we underperformed, there were some positives. Joe Edwards again showed his immense potential, and did tremendous work to set up our only goal of the game, which was well taken by Kent Johnson, who again had a solid game."

2:47pm Thursday 27th December 2007

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