Gameday Preview: Stars v. Rockford IceHogs

Texas Stars 28-17-3-3, 62 pts #6 West Division

v.

Rockford IceHogs 20-22-3-4, 47 pts #8 West Division

February 12th at 7:00 PM

Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX

As per usual, a shorter preview for the second game of a back-to-back. The Stars are looking to start a streak as they head into their season long eight game road trip after tonight's game.

Rockford on the slate again has to look like a favorable match-up for Texas to get another two points and setup a two game winning streak. "We want to get rolling before this road trip," said Dan Spang postgame last night.

After the way last night's game went down, Rockford is definitely going to come into the game motivated to win even just a little bit more. Texas needs to keep their intensity up for all 60 minutes and not get complacent as they did last night at any point. Despite being in last place in the division, all of these divisional rivals are talented and can burn you if you get too settled.

Winger Luke Gazdic expects a chippier game than last night, but still a lot of the game. Both teams have "a lot of character and physical guys" as he sees it and that leads to very grinding matchups often times.

Nevertheless, Texas is looking forward to another chapter in the rivalry, which is certainly not one you'd expect: "Rockford, Illinois," said Gazdic. "You wouldn't see that on paper as being the biggest rivalry, but it's become a pretty good one."

Stars injury/call up report:
Morin, McCulloch (lower body)
Larsen (unspecified day-to-day)
Gagnon, Sawada, Wathier, Vincour (callup)

Website: icehogs.com
Blog (unofficial): Rockford IceHogs Fan Blog
Twitter: @goicehogs