Ondrej Palat’s hat trick lifts Crunch over Rochester

4-1 Win

Rochester, NY – Ondrej Palat's hat trick lifted the Syracuse Crunch over the Rochester Americans 4-1 tonight at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.

Goaltender Cedrick Desjardins stopped 25 of 26 shots for the win in his fourth consecutive start and the Crunch's season-high eighth win in a row. The Crunch improve their overall record to 34-13-2-4 and road record to 21-6-0-2. With 74 the Crunch have the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Palat scored twice in the opening frame to send the Crunch into the first intermission with a two goal lead. Palat's first goal came 10:17 into the period when he one-timed a cross-crease pass from Tyler Johnson past Rochester netminder David Leggio. Palat scored his second of the game on the power play with 5:40 to play in the period. Palat threw the puck into the crease where it deflected past Leggio for Palat's ninth goal of the season.

After a scoreless second period Palat completed the hat trick at the 15:35 mark of the final frame. Palat put the rebound of a Johnson shot past Leggio to give the Crunch a 3-0 lead.

Rochester center Nick Tarnasky spoiled Desjardins shutout bid with a power-play goal with 1:35 to play in the final period. The Syracuse penalty kill unit finished the night four for five.

The Crunch will host the Albany Devils on Friday, March 1 before a rematch with the Amerks on March 2 at the War Memorial.

Crunchables: Tonight was Ondrej Palat's 10^th multi-point game this season…Palat has 12 points in his last six games…Palat's hat trick is the fourth Crunch hat trick this season…The Crunch are 21-0-2-1 when leading after the first period…With an assist on Ondrej Palat's first goal and third goal Tyler Johnson now leads the league in scoring with 53 points.

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