ELMONT, N.Y. — Kyle Palmieri recorded a first-period natural hat trick and four points overall to fuel the New York Islanders to a 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at UBS Arena.
Palmieri scored his trio of goals 8:47 apart — his first hat trick since 2019 when he was a member of the New Jersey Devils — making it the fastest natural hat trick to start a game in franchise history. He became the first Islander since Jason Blake on Feb. 27, 2007, to record a hat trick in the first period and is the first Islander to score three or more goals in a game since Jean-Gabriel Pageau did so on April 3, 2022, against the Devils.
“I probably couldn’t have drawn it up much better,” Palmieri said. “Saturday night at home, we wanted to make it a good one and get off to a good start. That’s what we did.”
His big night sparked the Islanders’ third consecutive victory (26-20-14), which allowed them to stay within five points of third place and the final automatic playoff in the Metropolitan Division after the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-1.
Palmieri opened the scoring 3:32 into the game when Noah Dobson sprung him on a transitional break down the right wing into the Bruins zone where he beat Linus Ullmark through the five-hole.
“We were making our decisions quick, we were executing, and we were just getting the puck up ice fast,” Palmieri said. “The defense and the centers did a great job of being in spots where we can break the puck out and not give them too much.”
Just 1:55 later, he cleaned up a Bo Horvat rebound while on the power play to double the Islanders’ advantage. His third was similar at the 12:19 mark of the period when he pounced on another Ullmark rebound that was strategically created by a Ryan Pulock attempt from the right circle to give the hosts a 3-0 lead after the opening period.
“[Ullmark is] a good goalie positionally. He takes away a lot of the net,” Palmieri said….
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