Palmer dominates in 8-1 blowout

PALMER — The Palmer Moose peppered former Moose goalie Alex Koch with 36 shots to dominate the Kardinals 8-1 at Palmer Ice Arena Thursday in the first of the teams’ Valley-Peninsula matchups.

Junior forward Tyler Isaacs started the scoring barrage at 14:04 in the first when he picked up a rebound on a Zack Richards shot from a Kyle Blakeman pass to put the Moose on the board.

Sophomore Jared Hanson capitalized on a too-many-men penalty on the Kardinals to blaze the second marker at 8:06, with assists by Nick Reeves and Michael Hanson.

Palmer’s domination continued in the second period when sophomore Kyle Blakeman scored at 11:35 off a feed from Ivan Good and Michael Hanson in a tic-tac-toe maneuver. Senior center Zack Richards notched the fourth goal on a power play at 6:50 in the second, with assists to Dylan Danielowski and Isaacs.

The Kardinals only score came with 1:48 left in the second while Nick Reeves sat in the box after a roughing call. Bobby Myles’ wrist shot off a Cameron Borkgrevink attempt got by Moose netminder Will Rauchenstein.

The Moose came out scoring again in the third, with Isaacs picking up his second goal of the night from Reeves’ rebound off Koch’s glove for the fifth goal.

Danielowski caromed one off Koch’s pad to make it 6-1 at 4:33 in the game and Good got his first goal of the night with a slap shot centered at Koch from about the top of the circle.

With under a minute left, Jared Hanson took a Reeves pass for the last marker of the night.

Isaacs credited a shakeup in the lines for the good performance.

“The new lines are working,” Isaacs said. “There’s really good chemistry.”

The Moose face Homer Friday evening and meet the Soldotna Stars at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Palmer is 2-0 in conference play.