Sports stats



AHL Syracuse Crunch

Palmieri Trick Checkers, Crunch Roll to 6-2 Win

March 19, 2011 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - Rookie right wing Kyle Palmieri tied a Crunch season-high with four points and recorded his second professional hat trick in the process, and Timo Pielmeier stopped 40 of 42 shots he faced on the night as the Syracuse Crunch rolled to a 6-2 win over the Charlotte Checkers tonight in front of 5,639 fans at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena. The win was the Crunch's second in a row and sixth in their last eight games.

"Tonight, give credit to my linemates," said Palmieri. "I think the whole team played really well and we were generating a lot of shots. I think going into tomorrow night's game we just have to carry this momentum from these two wins and hopefully get another two points."

The Crunch travel to Hershey on Sunday for a 5 p.m. match-up against the Bears to finish up a three games in three days stretch.

"I thought the kids played awesome," said Crunch Head Coach Mark Holick. "I think they deserved every bit of it so yeah, they did a great job."

Syracuse carried over its momentum from a hard-fought 1-0 win last night vs. Toronto. The Crunch looked to break out of their offensive slump after scoring just three goals over the previous three games, and did just that by jumping all over Charlotte in the game's first 20 minutes.

Patrick Maroon gave the Crunch a 1-0 lead at the 6:44 mark of the first on a play set up beautifully by Nick Bonino. Bonino received a pass from Brian McGrattan up the right wing boards, diced his way towards the middle of the ice and threaded a perfect pass through the defensemen's legs right to the waiting stick of Maroon.

Maroon's initial shot hit off the inside of the right post and stopped almost dead on the goal line before he was able to get a stick on it on a second effort and tap it in past Justin Pogge.

The game turned chippy just over three minutes later, after McGrattan was given a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct for hitting Zac Dalpe into the corner boards. A scrum ensued in which Zack FitzGerald was also given a roughing infraction, setting up a three-minute power play for the Checkers that the Crunch successfully killed off.

Just under six minutes later, Charlotte's Brett Bellemore was called for interference when he checked Maroon away from the puck along the Checkers bench and Maroon collided with the stanchion, setting up a Crunch power play.

After coincidental roughing minors to Josh Green and FitzGerald at the 16:14 mark, the Crunch were the ones that capitalized on a great individual effort from Palmieri.

Palmieri corralled a pass from Pielmeier in his own zone, turned and took off towards the opposing goal. The AHL All-Star weaved his way through the neutral zone, being forced to the outside all the while by a Charlotte defender. Palmieri let go a sharp, accurate wrister from a tough angle that squeezed through the arm and body of Pogge to give the Crunch a 2-0 advantage with just over three minutes left in the first period

Charlotte cut the Crunch lead in half 6:21 into the second period when Nick Dodge shuffled home a rebound in front past Pielmeier from a Casey Borer point shot just after a power play expired to make it 2-1.

The score stayed that way until the Crunch offense exploded for four goals in a span of 3:37 towards the end of the frame to blow the game open.

Palmieri's second of the game put the Crunch up 3-1 when Maroon fed him the puck in the slot and Palmieri snapped a shot to the top right corner over the shoulder of Pogge to make it 3-1.

Matt Beleskey added his tenth goal of the season 1:23 later when he turned a fired a sharp angle shot from the near side boards that squeezed through Pogge to extend the Crunch's lead to 4-1.

Palmieiri made it 5-1 when he scored a highlight reel goal after dancing around a defender and beat Pogge with a nifty backhand-to-forehand move at the 18:23 mark. Just 37 seconds later, Josh Green gloved a loose puck out of the air, settled it quickly at the side of the cage and punched it past Pogge to give the Crunch a 6-2 lead.

Mike Murphy finished up the final 20 minutes in goal for Charlotte, but Pielmeier turned aside 21 of 22 shots in the third period to seal the win.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from March 19, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central