Kyle Palmieri defeated the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
Scratch that.
Kyle Palmieri The New York Islanders defeated the Boston Bruins Saturday night.
But while there was surely a total of 23 players in the lineup for the Islanders, it was Palmieri’s hat trick performance that was the driving force behind their third straight win, a 5-1 affair at UBS Arena.
From the opening puck drop, Palmieri had the fans who braved the torrential rains that covered Long Island to attend the game on their feet. Soon enough, they were showering him with headwear before the end of the first period.
To open the scoring, Palmieri caught a pass from Noah Dobson off the rush and beat Boston netminder Linus Ullmark with a shot on the short side to put the Islanders ahead 1-0. Minutes later, Palmieri made the Bruins pay for a James van Riemsdyk holding penalty as he cleaned up a loose puck in the crease on the power play for his first multi-goal performance of the season.
But he wasn’t done yet.
Crashing the net once again, Palmieri put back a rebound for his 18th goal of the season, completing the third hat trick of his career and first as a member of the Islanders. His three goals over the course of 8:57 were the second fastest by an Islanders player ever, second only to Derek King’s hat trick in the span of 1:18 all the way back in 1991.
Not one to hoard the wealth, Palmieri set up Anders Lee’s goal 46 seconds into the second period to make it 4-0 Islanders. Palmieri’s four-point night was the second of his career.
For a brief moment, though, the buzz around Palmieri turned to concern.
Play was quickly blown dead when Palmieri was slow to get up after being hit into the boards by Parker Wotherspoon. He managed to get to his feet under his own power and retreated to the Islanders’ locker room, eventually returning before the second intermission.
But it was during Palmieri’s absence that the Islanders’ lead grew even more as Brock Nelson chipped in a puck past Ullmark for his team-leading 28th goal of the year.
In net for New York, Ilya Sorokin stopped all but one of the 24 shots that came his way. Marc McLaughlin’s first goal of the season at 14:30 of the second period was the only blemish on Sorokin’s stat line.
With the win, the Islanders have won three in a row for the first time since mid-December.
At 26-20-14 and with 66 points, the Islanders are four points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning of the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference and five behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Islanders host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. EST at UBS Arena.
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