DENVER – In a de facto BIG EAST Quarterfinal on Friday night at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, Cody Malawsky's fifth and final goal of the night and a Marek Tzagournis empty netter punched Denver's ticket to Providence after a 10-9 win over Marquette.
 
Denver will take on top-seeded Georgetown in the BIG EAST Semifinal on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. MT on ESPN+.
 
LEADERS:
Cody Malawsky finished with five goals on the night, his sixth hat trick of the season and the 11^th of his career. With his fourth goal on Friday night, Malawsky became the 25^th Pioneer in the program's DI history to reach the century mark in career points. The Denver junior reached 100 in his 42^nd career game, the 12^th fastest Pioneer to get to the milestone.
 
Marek Tzagournis also had a five-point night, scoring twice, including the game winner and adding three assists and four grounders. Daniel Clark was Denver's only other multi-point getter with a pair of assists.
 
In net, Grayson Manning had another 60%+ night with 15 saves against just the nine goals allowed.
 
Denver's defense was active all night. Russell Overly led the way with three caused turnovers and four grounders, while Brody Davis had a pair of CTs and three ground balls.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Marquette opened the scoring with goals on back-to-back possessions to take a 2-0 lead 58 seconds in.
 
Denver's defense got a couple stops, including Russell Overly delivering a big hit at midfield on the ride to create the Pioneers first goal as Daniel Clark found Cody Malawsky in transition to cut the deficit in half. Following Denver's first faceoff win of the day, Marquette was flagged offside and the Pioneers cashed in on the 30-second man-up try when Marek Tzagournis hit Malawsky from X and he buried his second of the night to level things up at 2-2 with 9:07 to go.
 
Carsen Brandt netted his second to give the visitors the lead back before Malawsky capped off a first-quarter hat trick to even the score at 3-3 with 3:09 to go. The game went into the second even at three all.
 
Second Quarter:
Tim Kirchner finished a Tzagournis feed for his second goal of the season to give Denver its first lead of the night with 11:53 to play in the half. In his final game at Barton, Joe Taraboletti dodged down the right alley and tucked his 11^th career goal inside the far post to double the Pioneers advantage.
 
Denver got its school record 13^th shutout quarter on the defensive end this season to head back to the locker room with a two-goal lead.
 
After allowing goals on the first two shots he saw on Friday night, Grayson Manning saved nine of the next 10 Marquette shots on goal to finish the first half at 75%.
 
Third Quarter:
Brandt completed his hat trick in the opening minute of the third quarter to pull the Golden Eagles back to within one. Manning made a save on Marquette's second of the half to get to double digits. Malawsky's fourth of the day to reach the century mark restored the two-goal advantage with 12:09 to play in the third off Clark's second assist of the day. The Golden Eagles cut it to one once more to take the game to the third-quarter media timeout with 5:23 remaining in the third.
 
Tzagournis went on a long cross-field run late in the clock and wrapped around the goal for his first of the night to give Denver its first three-goal lead of the evening with four seconds to play.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Nolan Rappis completed his hat trick to open the fourth-quarter scoring and cut the Pioneers lead to two with 13:33 to play in regulation. Ethan Salvia sent the game to its final media timeout with his first goal of the night to make it a one-goal game with 5:55 to go.
 
The Golden Eagles tied things up at 8-8 with 4:08 to play after getting a reset goal after the Marquette struck iron on their set play out of their final timeout.
 
Malawsky's got his fifth of the night to break the run to give Denver the lead back with 2:41 to go. Marquette got a look at another leveler, but Manning made his 15^th save of the night and the Pioneers cleared.
 
Tzagournis scored in the empty net to push the lead to two, and Marquette got one off the ensuing faceoff to round out the scoring in the 10-9 game.
 
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