The Waterloo Black Hawks defeated the host RoughRiders 5-2 Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep of the Riders in the opening round of the Clark Cup playoffs.

Paul Weisgarber snapped a 2-2 tie at 9:53 of the second period with what proved to be the first of three unanswered Black Hawk goals. Weisgarber scored what would turn out to be the game winner off a Craig Smith centering feed.

Jan Mikael Juutilainen buried a rebound at 7:50 of the third period to extend the Hawk lead to 4-2. Billy Maday capped off the win by finishing off a 3-on-2 rush at 12:52 of the third.

Waterloo’s three-goal onslaught served as an ample response after the RoughRiders’ David Boehm knotted the score at two with a shorthanded goal just six seconds into the second period. Boehm beat Waterloo goaltender Matt DiGirolamo (20 saves) from the right wing circle to temporarily swing the momentum in the Riders’ favor.

It was also the Riders who got off the mark first in the first period. Cedar Rapids was on the power play when Casey Wellman turned Robin Bergman’s centering pass into the first goal of the night just 1:45 into the game. The Hawks, however, would answer with two goals of their own before the first period was over. After Chad Billin’s power play goal evened the score at 8:02 of the first, Siim Liivik jammed the puck in from the side of the net to give Waterloo a 2-1 lead at the 14:59 mark.