The Brockville Tikis are just finding the energy to win.

The Tikis scored three unanswered goals in the third period en route to a 6-4 decision over the Athens Aeros in Rideau- St. Lawrence Junior B Hockey League action at the Memorial Centre on Wednesday night.

Against the top-place team in the Rideau Division, the Tikis fully deserved to win their fourth straight game.

The victory by Brockville prevented the Aeros from widening their lead over the Westport Rideaus while the Tikis closed within six points of Westport for second place.

"We played a good game for about 55 minutes. We slowed up a bit in the second period and they took advantage of it," said Tikis head coach Adam Folco. "We were able to come out in the third period and worked hard and we were rewarded for that."

The Aeros were a little shorthanded on the night – missing five regular players – but Athens head coach Ted Dancy didn't want to use that as an excuse.

"When tired legs and brain cramps go hand in hand, you make vegetable soup," said Dancy after the loss.

"I'm not happy with the loss after having a successful weekend to get into first place," he continued.

The Tikis continued their good play against the high-powered Aeros with forechecking and hard work.

"We've played them pretty well the last three or four games," agreed Folco. "It's always going to be a good game and it takes a good game to beat them."

Trailing 4-3 after the second period, the Tikis scored two quick goals early in the third to take the lead.

At the 1:04 mark, Tikis' Shane Melcher scored his 27th goal of the season to tie the game at 4-4.

At 6:48, the puck bounced in front of the Aeros' net and right to Robert Rice, who knocked it into the net and past Athens goaltender MacKenzie Sawyer for a 5-4 Brockville lead.

With the Aeros getting caught in some penalty trouble a few minutes later, the Tikis earned themselves a two-goal advantage.

Alex Bouchey continued to have the hot hand for the Tikis recently and he rattled the puck into the net off the post for his second goal of the night. The Tikis now led 6-4.

"They were starting to slow down a bit," said Folco of the Aeros. "They were going with two lines and we were still able to keep most of our lines rolling in the third period. We were first to every puck in the third period."

The Aeros started off with a 1-0 lead on Daniel Lacroix's 34th goal of the season.

The Tikis then scored twice in a 23-second span. Sawyer made the stop on one shot with Bouchey in the right place at the right time to score on the rebound at 8:19.

At 8:42, Tikis' Eric Malloy was able to get to a rebound and knock it past Sawyer.

The teams traded goals in the second period.

At the 54-second mark of the second period, Tikis goaltender Ryan Bishop lost sight of the puck and Andrew Warren was able to tie the game at 2-2.

Aeros' Steven Parker converted a two-on-one at 10:53 to give Athens a 3-2 advantage.

At 12:27, after an Athens defenceman fell down, the Tikis made good use of a three-on-one with Alex Campbell scoring to tie the game at 3-3.

The Aeros regained the lead on a powerplay at the 17-minute mark when Kyle Drisdelle fired a shot through the glove hand of Bishop to give Athens a 4-3 lead.

Even though the Aeros were in the lead, Dancy could sense the team wasn't working hard enough on defence to be comfortable with that advantage.

Meanwhile, Folco had the belief his team was going to be able to make the comeback by the manner in which they were focused on their assignments.

The Tikis outshot the Aeros 43-29 in winning their eighth game in their last 11 starts.