No. 7 Johns Hopkins had just seized an 11-10 lead against its bitter rival No. 4 Maryland late in the fourth quarter of their 118th meeting all-time. Now, the Blue Jays needed something special to close the game out.
Russell Melendez provided that something special with just under four minutes remaining when he wrapped around the right corner of the net and scored a diving backhanded goal to give Hopkins a two goal lead.
“Melendez is phenomenal. He can do stuff like that. He always steps up big and was able to make a great play today,” senior Jacob Angelus said.
The Terps would get a goal back with under a minute to go, but the lead proved insurmountable. The Blue Jays defeated Maryland 12-11 to win a share of the regular season Big Ten title and snap a five game losing streak to the Terps dating back to 2021.
“We’ve been through a lot of hard times. It’s obviously very special, and it’s a great feeling to beat your rivals and win the regular season title. Coach Milliman says all the time we have the best role players in the country and we don’t take that for granted. We just play to our strengths” Angelus said.
“Unfortunately, I just feel like we made a lot of mistakes tonight. Just a lot of quick possessions in the first half and then getting the ball from defense to offense late in the fourth quarter was a struggle, which really put a ton of pressure on our defense,” Maryland Coach John Tillman said.
The game was incredibly close with little to split the sides. The score was tied at every number from 0 to 10 at some point.
Hopkins attempted 36 shots with 20 on target, while Maryland shot 33 times with 17 on target.
The Blue Jays had a slight advantage in faceoffs, winning 14 of 27.
However, Luke Wierman won the first four faceoffs against Matt Narewski which prompted Coach Peter Milliman to switch the faceoff player to Tyler Dunn, greatly impacting the game.
Dunn won 11 of the next 14 faceoffs, allowing Hopkins to control possession.
“I thought that the faceoff change helped them. He came in and did a really good job,” Tillman said.
The Blue Jays were led by Melendez, who had five points with two goals and three assists.
Angelus also added three goals and an assist.
The Terps were led by freshman Braden Erksa, who had a career-high five points with four goals and an assist.
Daniel Maltz also scored four goals in a strong performance.
Maryland struck first about two and a half minutes in when Maltz was able to score an unassisted goal.
However, Hopkins answered back with goals from Brendan Grimes and an electrifying shot from the right side by Johnathan Peshko to take a 2-1 lead.
The game was back and forth the whole way, featuring eight lead changes. Maryland goals by Daniel Kelly and Kyle Long in the three minutes following the Peshko goal allowed the Terps to pull ahead again.
Some slick passing from the Blue Jays led to an Angelus goal with 7:31 remaining in the second quarter.
About 30 seconds later, Angelus assisted a wide open Garrett Degnon, who was standing in front of the goal and buried the shot into the net to give Hopkins a 4-3 lead.
The relentless Terps fought back again with about five minutes left in the half when Erksa slipped out from behind the goal on the left side and snuck a shot past the keeper.
Erksa scored again in similar fashion with 56 seconds remaining in the half to give the Terps a 5-4 lead at the break.
A flurry of goals followed after the break. Matt Collison and Angelus both scored in the first two minutes of the half to allow the Blue Jays to seize back the lead.
Less than a minute later, Nick Redd made a streaking run through the middle of the field and fired the ball past the keeper for the first goal of his career. Erka completed his hat trick with a goal 33 seconds later to help Maryland to reclaim the lead 7-6.
Degnon tied the game again for Hopkins off of an assist from Melendez, only for Erka to score his fourth a minute and a half later to regive Maryland the lead.
Defensive breakdowns by the Terps again proved costly when Peshko answered back exactly one minute later to deadlock the score.
Both teams then traded goals back and forth, until some precise intruding passes from Maryland led to a relatively simple goal for Daniel Maltz to complete his hat trick and tie the game 10-10 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.
However, the Terps offense started to stall in the fourth quarter as turnovers caused short possessions and put their defense in difficult situations. Hopkins’ defensive intensity played a huge part in putting pressure on Maryland.
“In that fourth quarter, I think what will sting is how many times we brought the ball down in transition and just came up empty. We didn’t even get a shot or we turned the ball over,” Tillman said.
The Blue Jays capitalized by going on the counter and scoring from a solid Angelus shot to take the lead with around eight minutes remaining.
Melendez then scored the ultimately decisive goal with under four minutes left, leaving Maryland scrambling to find offense.
A goal by Maltz with 54 seconds remaining gave the Terps some life, but they failed to seize the moment, turning the ball over on their final possession.
“We’ve just got to stay positive and keep teaching. We’ve come a long way and we’ve just got to keep staying true to who we are, trying to get better, and sticking together,” Tillman said.
The Terps will continue their season next Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals against Rutgers.
