DENVER, Colo. ---- Notre Dame is headed back to Championship Weekend for the second straight year and fifth time in school history. The top-seeded Fighting Irish men's lacrosse team secured the berth with a 14-10 quarterfinal victory over Albany on Saturday afternoon at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado. In a game that featured a series of second-half runs by both teams and a one hour and 20-minute lightening delay in the second quarter, Notre Dame's balanced scoring attack and stout defense proved to be the difference in the game. Sophomore Sergio Perkovic registered his fifth hat trick of the season in scoring a season-high five goals and dishing off one assists, while Conor Doyle accounted for three goals and an assist. With the victory, Notre Dame improved to 12-2 on the season, while the Great Danes saw their nine-game wins streak come an end as they ended their season with a 16-3 record. "Today's game was terrific. It was a fight. You make a couple plays; they make a couple plays. We go up four; they come roaring back with five. We struggled at times to be patient as much as we needed to be but that's partly a credit to them. They were pressing out on us. You look at our goals, there weren't alot of assisted goals because they weren't sliding around too much. And that was partly our patience as well." After falling behind 9-8 with 2:25 left in the third quarter following five straight Albany goals, Notre Dame was not rattled and used a patented scoring run of its own in the final 15-minute stanza. "Defensively, I thought we got an unbelievable effort. Shane Doss played really well." Corrigan said. "Matt Landis guarded (Lyle) Thompson as well as you can guard him. He's a great, great player, and I thought Matt was terrific on him. But he had help. Our guys were making good slides and decisions. If you get caught in no-man's land against a guy like that, he just kills you. I thought as though we did a nice job of not doing that too much. Overall our team--one the things about us is I think we've been pretty balanced, and I think that came through today--balanced offensively, balanced defensively. And that was a big thing for us." Saturday's contest marked the second consecutive year that two teams met in the quarterfinals of the NCAA. Last season, Notre Dame secured a berth in the semifinals with a 15-14 overtime victory. Notre Dame held Thompson, the NCAA's most dynamic scorer to just a goal and an assist in the contest. Thompson, who has scored 100-plus points in three consecutive seasons, finished off his career with 400 points. "Like coach said, Lyle is one of the most electric players in the game," Landis said. He's a great athlete, he's got great footwork but like coach said, it was absolutely a team effort. I knew I had the support of guys on the inside Eddie Glazener and Garrett Epple and Jack Near, they were pushing me. Then around the field, helping reduce the skip passes and lanes, that all really helped me have confidence on the ball." Notre Dame clearly dominated the first quarter by outshooting Albany 13-8. The Great Danes struck first when Connor Fields scored the first of his game-high six goals off an assist from Lyle Thompson. For Thompson, it was an NCAA record-breaking 222nd career assist. Thompson eclipsed the mark of Tim Nelson of North Carolina State and set from 1982-85. Notre Dame quickly struck back with a man-up goal by Perkovic, his 26th goal of the season, from Jim Marlatt with 9:12 to play in the first half. Albany retook the lead Albany 2-1 with 7:11 on Thompson's only score in the contest. Doyle then connected for the Irish with his 28th score on the season with 2:03 remaining in the fourth quarter. Near gave Notre Dame its first lead of the game 3-2 on his 13th goal of the season 1:15 into the second quarter. The Irish had couple of scoring chances after than point. Albany's Tim Cox knotted the game at 3-3 at 9:04, but that didn't last long before junior Matt Kavanagh netted his first goal of the game and 27th in 2015 with 8:52 remaining in the quarter to give the Irish a 4-3 lead. It was Kavanagh's first point in the NCAAs this season after being held without a goal or an assist last weekend in Notre Dame's 12-10 first-round win over Towson. Notre Dame led 4-3 before the lightening delay suspended action with 5:44 left in the second quarter. Following the delay, Notre Dame responded with a four-goal outburst as the Irish lead 8-4 at the halftime break. Will Corrigan gave the Irish a 5-3 advantage with 3:31 that extended his goal-scoring streak to a career-best four consecutive games. The combination of Fields and Thompson connected for the second time in the game again with 2:47 remaining, before back-to-back scores by Conor Doyle at 2:31 and 1:22, respectively pushed Notre Dame's lead to 7-4 before halftime. Perkovic closed out the second-quarter scoring as the Irish led 8-4 with 57 seconds left in the first half. Notre Dame outshot the Great Danes 32-17 and held Albany to its lowest scoring output in the first half this season. Entering the game, Albany had outscored their opponents 74-19 in the first 30 minutes. Albany outscored the Irish 5-0 in the third quarter. Fields connected on both of the goals to pull the Great Danes to within 8-6 with 7:27 remaining in the third quarter. The two scores marked his 63rd and 64th goals of the season. The first came off an assist from Eric Cantor at Seth Oakes pulled Albany to within 8-7 with his first goal of the game at 6:11. Albany's run would continue with a fourth straight goal when Fields tallied his fifth goal of the game off an assist from Oakes with 4:16 to play in the third quarter. Kyle McClancy gave the Great Danes with his 17th goal of the season a 9-8 with 2:25 left off a feed from Matt Garziano. After being held scoreless for the first time in the third quarter of a game all season, Notre Dame quickly got its high-scoring offense in gear with two goals less than 30 seconds in the final 15-minute stanza. Perkovic registered his third goal of the game and fifth hat trick of the season at 13:36 followed by Jim Marlatt's second goal of the NCAA postseason just 16 seconds later. Freshman Mickey Wynne continued Notre Dame the scoring run with his team-leading 33rd goal of the season and first of the NCAA postseason. Nick Ossello, from nearby Wheat Ridge, Colorado, scored the first of his two fourth-quarter goals on an unassisted tally with 9:07 to play. Less than three minutes later, Perkovic then scored his fourth goal of the game off a feed from Near with 6:23 to play. Ossello registered Notre Dame's sixth straight goal in the run off an assist from Perkovic with 5:45 that sealed the Irish victory. Thompson scored the game's final score with 27.9 seconds remaining to notch his 400th career point. Notre Dame will face Denver in next weekend's NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship semifinal matchup on Saturday, May 23 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Pioneers defeated the Irish 11-10 in overtime back on March 7 in Denver.