Stars put away IceHogs, advance to division finals

Photo: Andy Nietupski

The Texas Stars became the first team to advance to the division finals, finishing off a three-game sweep of Rockford with a 4-2 victory on Wednesday night.

The Stars will face either Milwaukee or Manitoba in the next round.

Rhett Gardner and Oskari Laaksonen tallied a goal and an assist each for Texas. Riley Damiani returned to the lineup after missing the first two games of the series and scored his first career postseason goal, and Nick Caamano added his second goal of the series.

Matt Murray (3-0) made 27 saves in the win.

Michal Teply and Lukas Reichel scored for the IceHogs.

Central Division Semifinals (best-of-5)
C1-Texas Stars vs. C5-Rockford IceHogs
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 28 – Texas 5, ROCKFORD 3 | Recap
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 30 – Texas 4, ROCKFORD 1 | Recap
Game 3 – Wed., May 3 – TEXAS 4, Rockford 2