Rockford, IL - The Rockford IceHogs took down the Texas Stars 8-4 on Saturday night inside the BMO Center. Gavin Hayes led the way with a four point (2g,2a) effort.

Just 14 seconds into the game, the Stars' Matthew Seminoff gathered in a rebound and banged it past Rockford's Stanislav Berezhnoy. The Hogs responded less than three minutes later thanks to Hayes who beat Texas goaltender Remi Poirier from the near circle to tie the game at 1-1.

The IceHogs took the lead at 12:09 when Jamie Engelbert went to the net and found a bouncing puck, before pushing it home through a scrum. Texas tied the game 2-2 while on the power play with Seminoff's second of the period.

On Rockford's first man-advantage, defenseman Dmitri Kuzmin took a drop pass from Kevin Lombardi and snapped his shot through traffic with just two seconds to go in the frame.

The Hogs offense continued to roll into the 2nd period. Lombardi found the scoresheet again, this time with a snipe from the far dot to build the Rockford lead to 4-2.

Josh Lopina collected his first goal in the IceHogs' red, deflecting a perfect Connor Mylymok feed outside the crease. Rockford ballooned the lead to 6-2 when Hayes snatched his second of the night. He got a piece of Kevin Korchinski's point shot while on the power play.

Moments into the 3rd, Engelbert created a breakaway and deked to his forehand for a 7-2 Rockford advantage. The Stars countered back with two straight to cut the deficit to 7-4 with markers from Antonio Stranges and Harrison Scott.

Lombardi added in an empty net tally for his second of the night. Berezhnoy earned the victory making 19 saves.

Up next, the Hogs travel to Milwaukee on Tuesday, December 30 at 7:00 p.m. to take on the Admirals. Rockford is back home on Wednesday, December 31 at 4:00 p.m. hosting the Chicago Wolves. It's a Screw City Night with Pizza Hut Family Packs and tickets are available at icehogs.com.