Perhaps it's only fitting that, in the first-ever Battle of Waterloo at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, a pair of former Kitchener Rangers were difference-makers. Unfortunately for the Waterloo Warriors, those difference-makers were on the other side of the battle.

Former Rangers Jimmy Soper and Brandon Robinson scored second period goals as the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks skated past the Warriors 5-1 in front of nearly 1100 fans at the Aud on Wednesday night.

Andrew Fritsch also scored in the Hawks' three-goal outburst in the middle frame (with Robinson drawing a helper), and Neil Aird scored into an empty net, while adding a pair of assists for Laurier, who improves to 4-4-1 on the season.

The Warriors, meanwhile, see their record fall to 2-4-2 in a loss that was much closer than the final scoreboard indicated – Laurier scored twice into an empty net in the late stages of the game. Cole Murphy (Cole Harbour) registered his first career OUA goal in the third period, while Mike Moffat (Waterloo) and Joey Champigny (East Angus) drew assists on Waterloo's only marker of the game.

In goal, Laurier's Colin Furlong earned the victory while turning aside 37 Waterloo shots. Furlong got the best of his good friend and former Kingston Frontenacs teammate Mike Morrison (Hamilton), who made 32 saves on 35 shots in the defeat.

After a relatively quiet opening 20 minutes in the unfamiliar surroundings, the Hawks came out on fire for the second period. After a pair of monumental Morrison saves on an early Laurier power play, the Hawks finally broke through when Soper took the trailing feed on an odd-man rush and beat the Warriors keeper for the game's opening goal. Then, the Hawks rattled off two goals in a 19-second span – first, Fritsch rapped home a rebound in front, and then Robinson tipped in a power play point shot by fellow former Ranger Derek Schoenmakers to give Laurier a 3-0 lead after two periods.

Waterloo responded with an inspired third period, in which they fired 17 shots on Furlong. Murphy, who'd been snakebitten earlier in the night when he rattled a shot off the post, finally earned a goal when his shot hit Furlong up high and dribbled just over the goal line to cut the Hawks lead to 3-1.

The Warriors kept coming, but Furlong held them at bay until Luke Hietkamp and Aird added late empty-net goals to put away the 5-1 victory for the visiting Hawks.

The Warriors will now return to their more familiar surroundings when they look to snap a two-game skid on Saturday night against the visiting York Lions. Puck drop at the Columbia Icefield Arena is scheduled for 7pm.