DENVER – Mother Nature gave Bill Tierney one more reminder that he coached a spring sport in the Mile High City on Friday night as snow fell in his last regular season home game at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The [10/10] University of Denver men's lacrosse team sent the seniors and Tierney off the way they deserved in a 13-6 win over Providence in-front of a sold-out crowd.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Six different Denver players had at least three points on Friday night. JJ Sillstrop led the Denver offense with four goals, while Michael Lampert led the distribution with a career-high four helpers. Mic Kelly turned in the other four-point game with a goal and three assists.
 
Noah Manning and Richie Connell had two goals and an assist each tonight, and Stephen Avery rounded out the multi-goal scorers with a pair of first-half tallies. Joshua Carlson added a career-high three points on a goal and two assists.
 
On the defensive side, Jimmy Freehill and Jack DiBenedetto had a pair of caused turnovers each.
 
Alec Stathakis went 14-of-23 from the faceoff stripe, picking up 13 ground balls and forcing a turnover of his own. Denver had six other players all with two ground balls.
 
First Quarter:
Providence opened the scoring 90 seconds in to take the early lead. Sillstrop evened the scoring with his 26^th of the campaign to even the score.
 
Matt Grillo got another for Providence with 11:34 to play, the Friars final goal in the 26:34 before halftime.
 
Denver ended the half on a 7-0 run, including the final five of the first quarter. Avery got his 22^nd off a feed from Kelly to make it 2-2. Kelly got a goal of his own to give Denver its first lead of the night at 6:59.
 
Connell switched hands off a feed from behind the cage from Lampert to double the advantage.
 
Avery's second came on the man-up, the first of two man-up goals on a two-minute un-releasable penalty. Sillstrop wrapped-up the first-quarter scoring with his 27^th of the campaign.
 
Second Quarter:
The defenses controlled the first half of the second frame, before Connell's second of the night broke the drought and made it a 7-2 game with 7:18 to play in the quarter.
 
Sillstrop wrapped up his hat trick to close out the first-half tallies, his 28^th of the year to send Denver into the locker room up 8-2.
 
Second Half:
Providence got the first two goals of the third quarter as the snow began to fall at Peter Barton, but a key sequence that started with a Malcolm Kleban save and ended four passes later with Sillstrop's fourth of the night kick-started another 4-1 Denver run to extend the lead to 12-5 midway through the fourth quarter. Manning scored the middle two Denver goals in the run and Carlson added his seventh of the season with 12:12 to play in regulation to push the margin to seven.
 
Freehill rounded out the scoring with a three-quarter-field goal with 7:08 to go to send those that braved the cold home happy with the 13-6 win.

Game Notes:

• In his final season, Tierney improved to 437-151 overall and 165-58 in his 14 seasons at Denver.
• Denver improved to 15-0 in the series, with 10 of those coming in BIG EAST regular season play
• JJ Sillstrop completed his fifth hat trick of the season and the 15^th of his career, getting his third goal to finish up the second-quarter scoring.
• Denver was a perfect 21-for-21 in the clearing game on Friday night.
• Denver's defense held Providence to just 11 shots on goal in the 60 minutes.
• Overall, the Pioneers outshot Providence 32-23.
• The Pioneers defense held Providence to six goals, matching the six goals it allowed Villanova in Denver's last home game and behind only the Utah season-opener for the fewest goals allowed this season.
• Denver improved to 151-27 when scoring double-digit goals under Coach Tierney, and 166-31 since Matt Brown joined the staff in 2008.
• Denver improved to 114-6 under Tierney when holding opponents to under 10 goals in a game.
• The Pioneers improved to 118-25 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, including 87-16 under Tierney.
• Denver also sold out its 56^th game in the history of Peter Barton Stadium on Friday, improving to 44-9 under Tierney in sellouts.

 
UP NEXT: The Denver men's lacrosse team, presented by Your Hometown Toyota Stores, will close out the regular season next Friday when the Pioneers take on Marquette. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. CT/5 p.m. MT on FloSports.  

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