The host RoughRiders scored four unanswered third period goals on the way to a 7-4 win over the Waterloo Black Hawks Friday.

The Riders trailed 4-3 until Brett Dickinson started the third period onslaught with a power play goal at the 2:26 mark of the final frame. Dickinson drove the puck home from the bottom of the right wing circle after a Kevin Wehrs’ blue line blast missed the net and caromed to Dickinson off the end boards.

The Riders broke the 4-4 deadlock exactly ten minutes later when Mike Seidel darted into the goalmouth to steer Jacob Cepis’s centering pass behind Waterloo goaltender Ryan Rondeau (30 saves).

The Riders finished off the Hawks with a pair of shorthanded empty net goals in the final minute, the second of which made team history. After Ian Slater made it 6-4 at 19:17, Jacob Cepis provided the exclamation with just 6.5 seconds left and in so doing tied the club record with his thirty-first goal of the season. Cepis equaled a mark set last year by Chad Costello.

The Riders had to rally in the third after the Black Hawks ripped off three straight second period goals.

Waterloo trailed 3-1 until, with the Hawks on the power play, Brett Barta cashed in a rebound at 10:51 of the second.

Just 1:16 later Billy Maday tied the game at three by steering home an Isak Tranvik feed from the doorstep.

The Hawks would take a 4-3 lead with their second power play goal of the period. This time it was Ryan Cramer who converted a rebound, snapping the deadlock at 17:38 of the second.

In a game rife with momentum swings, it was the Riders who had run off three straight goals in the first and second periods.

The Riders’ early surge started only after Waterloo’s Jan Mikael Juutilainen opened the scoring 2:20 into the game with a wraparound.

The Riders produced an emphatic response later in the first, scoring twice in 16 seconds. Both teams were down a man when Scott Mathis snapped the puck home from the left wing circle at 12:09. At 12:25 the Riders were on the power play when Pat Cannone beat Rondeau on the shortside from the right wing circle.

The Rider roll would continue into the second period when Evan Stephens turned a Mike Seidel cross-crease feed into a power play goal and a 3-1 lead at 6:48.