Syracuse, NY (October 15, 2011) – Crunch right wing Kyle Palmieri continued to light up the scoreboard in the club's second game of the season, recording his third career hat trick in a 6-2 victory for the Crunch over the visiting Adirondack Phantoms tonight in front of a sellout crowd of 6,311 fans on Mirabito Opening Night at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
The trio of Nick Bonino centering Patrick Maroon on the left and Palmieri on the right had an outstanding all-around game, with Bonino tallying four assists and Maroon adding three points (1g, 2a). In the Crunch's first two contests, that combination has scored seven of the Crunch's 11 goals and combined for 16 points. Goaltender Jeff Deslaueriers was also stellar in goal for the Crunch, stopping 36 of 38 shots he faced.
The energy of the pumped up War Memorial crowd translated down to the Crunch, as they came out with guns blazing and opened up a 3-0 lead before the game was even 12 minutes old.
Palmieri got it going again early on a power play opportunity, taking a slick behind-the-back feed from Bonino and rifling a wrister past the glove of Adirondack starter Jason Bacashihua for the 1-0 Crunch lead 4:47 into the game.
Rick Schofield added to the Crunch lead at the 11:01 mark after being sprung in on a breakaway by Mat Clark. Schofield deked to his left and the puck somehow found its way between the pads of Bacashihua after slipping off his stick for the 2-0 Crunch advantage.
The Crunch really took control of the game, amassing a 3-0 lead when Schofield's feed found its way to Sean Zimmerman in the slot and his shot deflected past Bacashihua just 28 seconds later.
Adirondack got on the board and cut the Crunch's lead to 3-1 just three and a half minutes into the second stanza with a goal from veteran Denis Hamel, but Palmieri answered just over a minute later to give the Crunch back a three-goal advantage.
Seven and a half minutes into the third period, Maroon finished off a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play, sneaking a wrister inside the right post on a delayed Adirondack penalty to make it a 4-1 game.
Adirondack rookie Brayden Schenn made it a 5-2 contest when his shot slipped through the five-hole of Deslauriers at the 12:50 mark of the third.
Palmieri finished off the hat trick after taking a feed from Maroon while streaking towards the cage and flipping a bid past Leighton to make it 6-2.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch are now 8-5-4-1 all-time in home openers and have won back-to-back games to start a season for the first time since 2008-09…Troy Bodie, J.F. Jacques and Sean Zimmerman all wore an 'A' as alternate captains tonight.
