Teply and Howarth tally in physical loss to Stars

ROCKFORD, IL- The Rockford IceHogs (14-14-1-1) dropped a physical 5-2 contest to the Texas Stars (10-14-4-1) at BMO Harris Bank Center on Friday night. The Hogs and Stars combined for an IceHogs season-high 61 penalty minutes, including 30 by Rockford in the front end of two straight games between the teams.

Forward Rhett Gardner opened the game scoring 5:25 into the contest, for his second goal of the season. Gardner was left open in the slot where he found the back of the net after a feed from forward Curtis McKenzie.

Later in the period forward Michal Teply’s power play goal, assisted by forward Lukas Reichel and defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk, tied the game at 8:54. The Stars quickly responded with Riley Tufte finding the back of the net at 12:00 into the opening frame.

It was then Gardner who struck again with his second goal of the night to extend the Stars’ lead 3-1 at 3:27 of the second period. Rockford forward Kale Howarth responded with his second goal of the year to cut into the Stars’ lead at 13:59 of the frame.

With the Stars hanging onto a 3-2 lead, Rockford’s Garrett Mitchell and Dmitri Osipov along with McKenzie combined for 41 penalty minutes at the 9:06 mark. Osipov was tagged with 17 total minutes of penalty time, seven of those minutes resulting in an extended Stars power play. Texas would add to their lead on their advantage with a marker by Fredrik Karlstrom at 10:54.

The game was later iced with an empty net goal by Tufte, his second of the night.

The IceHogs finished the contest 1-for-6 on the power play with 34 shots on goal while the Stars finished 1-for-4 on the advantage with 25 shots.

The IceHogs are proud to host their annual Autism Awareness Night, presented by Lawncare By Walter, Inc. on Saturday, Jan. 22 against the Texas Stars at 6 p.m. at BMO Harris Bank Center and will feature many fan-favorite promotions such as custom Autism Awareness Night jerseys, autographed mystery pucks, jersey raffle and premium raffle to support The Autism Program of Easterseals. Buy Tickets & More Information

Watch and listen to the action on the IceHogs Broadcast Network presented by BMO Harris Bank! Tune in from your favorite device, at home or on the road at IceHogs.com and on the IceHogs app! Fans can also watch every IceHogs home game and select road games this season on 23.3 Circle TV and every game on AHLTV and listen in on all of Mid-West Family’s local stations including 104.9 The X, B103, 95.3 The Bull, and Rockford Greatest Hits 100.5 and featured on Rock River Current.