Cork suffered their fifth defeat of the Allianz NHL Division One campaign but manager Denis Walsh will take some heart from a stirring second-half fight-back.
The Rebels trailed 1-13 to 1-04 at the break and fell further behind when Gary Hurney netted his second goal for Waterford soon after the restart.
But the hosts rallied after that and goals from substitute Paudie O'Sullivan and corner-back Shane O'Neill brought them right back into the reckoning.
But the Déise just about held on to clinch fifth place in the division.
It certainly didn't look like there would be a grandstand finish when Waterford raced into a 1-07 to 1-03 lead after 23 minutes. The Waterford goal came from Hurney to cancel out Barry Johnson’s earlier major for Cork.
Jamie Nagle, John Mullane, Stephen Molumphy and Eoin Kelly all pointed before the break as all the Waterford forwards contributed to the scoreboard in the opening 35 minutes.
Cork brought on John Gardiner but not even he could prevent Hurney extending Waterford's lead.
The Rebels found themselves 13 points in arrears mid-way through the second half, but dug deep to force their way back into contention.
Along with the goals, points from Pat Horgan, Tom Kenny, Jerry O'Connor, Naughton and Gardiner trimmed Waterford’s lead to just two points.
Davy Fitzgerald's men finally responded with points from Hurney (2) and Seamus Prendergast, which were necessary to make late overs from Horgan and O'Connor irrelevant.
