Black Hawks Put Down RoughRiders

The Waterloo Black Hawks capped an almost perfect homestand with a 4-1 win against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders at Young Arena Saturday.

The game ended a sequence of five consecutive matchups on friendly ice. During the stretch, the Hawks picked up nine of ten possible standings points. As a result, Waterloo has moved to second place in the United States Hockey League Western Conference.

The Black Hawks outshot the RoughRiders 19-5 during the first period Saturday, but Cedar Rapids registered the only goal. At 8:45, T.J. Walsh found a rebound and backhanded it over Robbie Beydoun’s left pad to start the scoring.

The Black Hawks went to the lead in the second, but only thanks to superlative goaltending and defense. Four minutes into the period, Beydoun denied a breakaway opportunity by Steven Agriogianis, just minutes after turning aside a low, one-on-one chance by Justin Cole. The Hawks also denied a 66-second Cedar Rapids two-man advantage in the mid stages. Just after Waterloo came back to full strength, Beydoun snared a Jason Polin pointblank wrister.

Yuki Miura tied the score at 12:21. Crisscrossing with Ben Copeland, Miura made a strong move through the left wing circle and stuffed in his chance from a sharp angle. With 53.9 seconds to go, the Hawks jumped in front as Hank Sorensen joined a rush, received a pass from Nick Swaney, and flipped it past Zack LaRocque.

In the third, the Hawks benefitted from a favorable bounce. At 7:20, Garrett Wait sent the puck from the right boards across the slot; it hit defenseman Ben Foley and bounced in. Waterloo added a final goal during a late power play at 16:23. Shane Bowers flipped in the rebound of Swaney’s chance during the opening seconds of an advantage.

Beydoun claimed the win with 26 saves; LaRocque stopped 32 shots in the loss.

Waterloo’s weekend ends on Sunday in Sioux City against the Musketeers. The Hawks are back on home ice Friday to host the Tri-City Storm at 7:05 p.m.