QUEENS, N.Y. – The [11/12] University of Denver men's lacrosse team came from three goals down and held St. John's without a goal in the final 20:50 of the game to close out the long-weekend road trip with a 12-10 win over the Red Storm on Saturday afternoon at Belson Stadium.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Michael Lampert first career hat trick and a career-high six points highlighted Denver's offense production. Lampert's four goals came on 4-of-6 shooting.
 
Denver also got multi-goal performances from Stephen Avery, JJ Sillstrop and Noah Manning, as the trio finished with three points on two goals and a helper.
 
Mic Kelly had a career-high three assists to round-out the highlights of Denver's offensive performance.
 
On the other end of the ball, Jack Thompson, AJ Mercurio and Malik Sparrow all finished with multiple caused turnovers. In addition to his two caused turnovers, Mercurio had three ground balls and a goal in the fourth quarter.  
 
Alec Stathakis had a season-high 21 faceoff wins and a career-high 18 ground balls to give Denver the possession edge.
 
Malcolm Kleban came on in relief, playing the final 36:09 in net, and making five saves against just three goals allowed. Kleban made three stops in the tightly-contested fourth quarter.
 
First Quarter:
Sillstrop wasted no time getting career-point number 100, giving Denver its only lead of the opening half with a tally just over 90 seconds in.
 
St. John's reeled off three in a row in a four-and-a-half minute stretch to take a 3-1 advantage before goals from Lampert and Manning 44 seconds apart even up the score once again.
 
The Red Storm scored on the final possession of the opening quarter, courtesy of Brian Kelly's 18^th of the year to take a 4-3 lead after the opening quarter.
 
Second Quarter:
Avery tied things up with his first of two in the second frame at the 13:59 mark of the period. Avery then answered a Bobby Seel tally to make it 5-5 with 10:03 to play.
 
St. John's got the next two, but then Sillstrop got free on the back-pipe and Lampert hit him in stride to round out the first-half scoring and make it 7-6 at the intermission.
 
Third Quarter:
St. John's scored three of the first four in the second half to race out to a 10-7 lead with 5:50 to play. Jake Edinger had the only goal for the Pioneers in that run, scoring with 12:45 to go in the third to make it an 8-7 score.
 
Denver's defense turned up the heat, holding St. John's off the board for the final 20:50 on regulation, and getting back-to-back goals from Lampert less than a minute apart to bring Denver back to within 10-9 heading into the fourth and final frame.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Denver scored the only three goals of the fourth quarter. Manning's second of the afternoon tied things up at 10-10, and then nearly nine minutes later, Lampert's fourth of the day gave Denver its first lead since 1-0 in the early stages of the first quarter.
 
Kleban's fifth save in relief on Saturday afternoon kick-started a transition attempt that Mercurio capitalized on to give Denver an insurance tally at 12-10 with 3:07 to play. Mercurio's goal was his third of the season and the seventh of his career.
 
Denver's defense got a stop and killed off the only man-advantage chance of the afternoon for either team in the final seconds to secure the 12-10 win.
 
Game Notes:

• In his final season, Tierney improved to 436-151 overall and 164-58 in his 14 seasons at Denver.
• Denver improved to 10-0 in the series, with all 10 coming in BIG EAST regular season games.
• JJ Sillstrop recorded his 100^th career point, tying himself with Eric Law for the 10^th-fastest Pioneer to 100 career points, doing so in 40 career games.
  • Overall, Sillstrop became the 22^nd Pioneer to reach 100 career points.
  • Sillstrop pushed his point-streak to a team-high 11 games.
• Michael Lampert finished with his first career hat trick and the fourth multi-goal game of his career.
• Denver's fourth-quarter comeback was its second win when trailing at any point in the fourth quarter this season.

TICKETS: Single game tickets for the 2023 Denver men's lacrosse season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
UP NEXT: The Denver men's lacrosse team, presented by Your Hometown Toyota Stores, will close out its regular season home slate in the Bill Tierney era when the Pioneers welcome Providence to Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. Friday night's game under the Barton Lights is set for a 7 p.m. MT faceoff, and will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network and 104.3 The Fan HD3.

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