By Trevor Grimm

If playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd is work one goal, the crowd at Young Arena Wednesday for game one was worth at least two or three.

In front of a rock-concert loud crowd, one that was not amplified by loud music as with so many modern arenas at all levels, the Waterloo Black Hawks defeated the Lincoln Stars 5-0 at the Madhouse at Mullen and Commercial.

Sure, there were other factors. Jan Shostak didn’t have his best game of the season between the pipes for the Stars. Lincoln’s power play and penalty kill struggled to adapt to the 200x100 foot ice, 15 feet wider than the North American Standard.

Yet this felt like the late 1990s, when winning a road game in the west was an often seemingly insurmountable task. Without anything on the sound system, Waterloo fans topped out at over 105 decibels at one point in the first period. Overall, the average decibel sound was a staggering 95 decibels through two periods - including during the play and intermission

It felt like playoff hockey. Waterloo fans came with playoff intensity. Their team came with playoff intensity.

Lincoln is a big, physical team. The thought of them being intimidated seems crazy. But it sure felt like it.

The game was essentially over when Teddy Townsend competed his natural hat trick early in the second period, sending dozens of hats to the ice. By the time Dylan Compton made it 5-0 at 15:27 of the second, Lincoln coach Rocky Russo replaced Shostak with William Prowse.

In a close series with a 5-0 score entering the third period, it’s not unusual to see some chippiness, some taking on the ice, something to try to swing momentum for game four.

Waterloo did that successfully with two late goals and a frantic flurry in the dying seconds to turn a 4-1 game into a 4-3 final in game two Saturday. But Lincoln couldn’t find a way to swing momentum, a fact that has to be concerning to Stars fans entering game four.

Waterloo is standing on the edge of a dream, and can make that happen Thursday in front of a deafening home crowd.