SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Gabriel Dumont recorded a hat trick as the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Belleville Senators, 6-2, today at CAA Arena.
Dumont scored three goals, while Cole Koepke earned his first career two-goal game to help advance the Crunch to 20-18-4-1 on the season and 3-2-0-0 in the eight-game season series against the Senators.
Goaltender Hugo Alnefelt stopped 28-of-30 shots in victory for the Crunch. Mads Sogaard turned aside 23-of-29 in net for the Senators before being relieved by Filip Gustavsson in the third period. Gustavsson went on to stop all 11 shots he faced. Syracuse went 2-for-6 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
The Crunch were first on the board 9:51 into the game when Darren Raddysh blasted in a loose puck from the right point, but with just one second remaining in the frame, the Senators tied the game when Andrew Agozzino chipped a rebound in backdoor while on the power play.
Syracuse opened the second period with three consecutive goals to build up a commanding lead. At 2:44, Koepke skated down the left wing and fired in a wrister from the left faceoff dot. Five minutes later, Dumont scored from the same spot after Gage Goncalves forced a turnover. Koepke then potted his second of the game at 14:11 during a Crunch power play. Otto Somppi threw a cross-ice feed to set up Koepke for a shot from the right circle.
Belleville got one back at 17:35 mark of the middle frame when Zac Leslie finished off a cross-zone pass from Agozzino.
With just 37 seconds remaining in the second period, the Crunch regained their three-goal lead with another power-play goal. Alex Barre-Boulet centered a pass for Dumont to one-time from between the circles.
Dumont completed his hat trick 2:56 into the third period to lock in a Crunch win. He received a pass from Remi Elie as he cut down the slot and beat Sogaard for a third time.
The Crunch and Senators rematch tomorrow at 7 p.m.
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