RoughRiders lose at Waterloo, drop to 3rd place

WATERLOO - The Waterloo Black Hawks scored three unanswered goals in the third period and knocked the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders into third place in the USHL's Eastern Conference via their 6-3 win Friday night at Young Arena.

The RoughRiders' loss, their third straight, and a win for the Dubuque Fighting Saints slips Dubuque into second place by one standings point. The regular season concludes Saturday night, with Cedar Rapids (38-21-0, 76 points) hosting Chicago (7:15 p.m.) and Dubuque (77 points) playing at Waterloo.

The RoughRiders and Fighting Saints now know they will be first-round opponents in the playoffs. Game 1 of their best-of-five series will either be Tuesday night at Dubuque or Wednesday night at Cedar Rapids and will follow a 1-2-1-1-1 pattern.

Waterloo got a short-handed goal to begin the scoring midway through the first period, with Cedar Rapids taking a 2-1 edge on a late first-period goal on the power play by Erik Foley and a first-minute goal in the second period by Andrew Gaus.

Waterloo then scored twice to go back ahead, including scoring on a penalty shot. Adam Gaudette tied things at 3-3 as the teams headed to the third period.

But Ronnie Hein scored less than a minute in, and Waterloo scored twice more for the final margin. Ben Blacker took the goaltending loss for Cedar Rapids, allowing six goals on 27 shots faced.