Riders skunk Black Hawks

By Al Gruwell, Correspondent

CEDAR RAPIDS - A flurry of three second-period goals propelled the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders over the Waterloo Black Hawks, 6-0, before 3,439 fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena Saturday night.

Playing Waterloo always seems to bring up the vocals at The Stable, and after a calming first period, Cedar Rapids took a 1-0 lead at the 2:34 mark on a centering feed from Ryan McGrath to John Gilmour, who buried the puck past Waterloo goaltender Cal Petersen nine seconds into the Riders' second power-play opportunity.

After referee Chris Pitoscia waved off an apparent goal for a crease violation, giving the crowd fits, the Riders made it 2-0 after McGrath slapped in a rebound from the left face-off circle off a Greg Amlong slapper, again on the power-play. McGrath then got a 10-minute misconduct for some body language to the referee.

"We have tremendous respect for the Waterloo team and organization," Cedar Rapids Head Coach Mark Carlson said of his team.

"We don't take a different approach to playing (Waterloo)."

"I thought we had tremendous execution on the power play," Carlson said of his team, which was 3-for-6 with a man advantage.

Rider point leader Austin Ortega scored two minutes later to put the Riders up 3-0.

McGrath used a nifty toe drag to escape his defender and bury his 13th goal of the season at the 11:25 mark of the third period. Riley Bourbonnais followed up a minute later, roofing a shot past Pedersen.

"Coach challenged me to be a leader after I got the penalty," McGrath said. "We just kept grinding, looking for chances."

Ortega buried his second goal of the night and 19th of the season at the 4:25 mark for the game's final margin. Dennis Kravchenko had three assists, including helpers on both Ortega goals.

Jake Hildebrand picked up his 17th win, stopping 24 shots. "Jake showed a lot of poise," Carlson said.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Cedar Rapids (23-20-10).

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