DENVER CO – The eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team used a 5-1 run to break a 7-7 third-quarter tie and the Blue Jays held Denver to just one goal in a 23-minute span in the second half of a 13-10 season-opening win over the ninth-ranked Pioneers Saturday afternoon.  In addition to grabbing a crucial season-opening win on the road, the Blue Jays also handed head coach Peter Milliman the 100^th win of his coaching career.
 
After Denver pulled even on a Cody Malawsky goal with 10:40 on the third-quarter clock, the Blue Jays scored three times in a span of less than two minutes to quickly turn a 7-7 tie into a 10-7 lead.  Hunter Chauvette, Chuck Rawson and Russell Melendez all scored during the run for the Blue Jays with Melendez and Chauvette also picking up assists.
 
The Pioneers halted the run with 4:06 remaining in the third quarter when Malawsky fed Marek Tzagournis on the crease, but the Blue Jay defense would clamp down and the Pioneers wouldn't score again until just 2:15 remained in the game; by then, Johns Hopkins had added the third goal of the game for both Rawson and Melendez to extend the lead to 12-8.  The Melendez goal came with 3:58 remaining off a feed from Brooks English as the Blue Jays had the Denver defense scrambling to match up.
 
A pair of late Mic Kelly goals were wrapped around the fourth of the day for Melendez to account for the 13-10 final.
 
Early on, the Blue Jays answered a game-opening goal for the Pioneers with a four-goal run that gave them a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Four different players scoring during the run for Johns Hopkins, which grabbed the three-goal lead despite the Pioneers winning four of five first-quarter faceoffs.
 
Denver responded to the Blue Jays' game-opening run with a 5-1 spurt to open the second quarter.  A Tzagournis goal ignited the spree, which also included strikes from Malawsky and Kelly as the Pioneers built a 6-5 lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first half.
 
Johns Hopkins responded to the 5-1 run by scoring the last two goals of the first half to grab a 7-6 lead at the break.  Stuart Phillips scored from the slot off a nifty feed from Matt Collison with 4:05 remaining and Melendez stuck the first of his four on the day with just three seconds remaining to give the Jays the 7-6 lead.
 
Malawsky's third-quarter-opening goal came just 4:20 into the second half, but Chauvette's snipe in transition 56 seconds later sprung the game-deciding 5-1 run for the Blue Jays.
 
Melendez paced the Blue Jays offensively with four goals and two assists and Rawson added the first hat trick of his career as he scored on all three of his shots on the day.  Chauvette (2g, 2a) and Collison (1g, 3a) added four-point games, Logan Callahan won 15-of-24 faceoffs and Luke Staudt posted 12 saves in goal in his Johns Hopkins debut.
 
Kelly (3g, 1a) and Malawsky (2g, 2a) led the Pioneers offensively.  The Pioneers got 11 saves in goal from Malcolm Kleban, including three in the second quarter when Denver jumped back in the game.  After winning 4-of-5 faceffs to open the game, the Pioneers won just 7-of-22 over the final three quarters.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will make the flight back to Baltimore tonight and then have a quick turnaround until its next game on Tuesday, February 4 at Towson (6 pm).  The game will be the season-opener for the Tigers.