Sheldon Dries scored in regulation, and Mike McKenna stopped 38 shots for the Stars, who will face the Toronto Marlies in the AHL's championship series, which begins Saturday in Toronto.
Four of the six games in the Rockford series went to overtime, and Monday's contest appeared headed to a second extra period, but the Stars turned an offensive zone faceoff loss into the game-winning goal. After Hintz lost a draw in the left circle with 17 seconds left, Colin Markison won a puck battle behind the net and sent the puck to Hintz, who scored from the slot to give the Stars their seventh overtime win of the playoffs and a 4-2 series win over the IceHogs.
"It was a hell of a series," Laxdal said. "It had the making of maybe going seven games. Give Rockford credit; they were down 3-0 in the series, and they battled back to get it to overtime in Game 6."
Monday's game was scoreless midway through the second period, but the Stars finally broke through when Sheldon Dries' centering pass from behind the net bounced off the back of Rockford goaltender Jeff Glass and into the net at the 10:06 mark to put Texas up 1-0.
The Stars thought they had pushed the lead to 2-0 at 17:09 of the second but a goal by defenseman Brent Regner was waved off because officials ruled that he had knocked the puck into the net with a high stick.
Rockford pushed for the equalizer in the third, but McKenna came up with several good saves. Texas came close to extending the lead with 2:07 remaining but Glass came up with a big stop on Justin Dowling to keep the IceHogs within one goal. Then, with Glass coming out of the net for an extra attacker a short time later, Rockford tied the game when Chris DiDomenico scored from the right circle with 1:34 remaining. And it was onto overtime where Hintz catapulted the Stars to the Calder Cup Finals with 8.5 seconds left in the extra period.
"It's awesome," Hintz told media. "There is no better feeling. Now, it is good to get ready for the Calder Cup Finals and go to Toronto."
