Top 10 GNASH games broadcast by MTSN in all of 2023

Unlike last week’s list, which was a “10 Best”, this is a ranked list.

#10 - Centennial vs. Independence-Ravenwood 2 - 25 October - This wasn’t the highest-scoring game of 2023; there have been a few games this current season where the number of total goals scored by both teams was 17, and the Outlaws and Summit-Page finished in a 10-10 tie way back on January 25 (a game not broadcast by MTSN). Centennial took a 7-3 lead with 5:18 to go, and should’ve been home free. But then, their defense started playing like they were. Combine this with a backup goalie who had absolutely no ice hockey experience until just before the season started - poor Kade Henderson - and the Eagles managed to complete the comeback, with Landric Mayeski scoring two of his four goals on the night inside the last minute the game, the tying goal coming with just 18 seconds left.

#9 - Brentwood vs. Ravenwood - 18 January - This was the true 2022-23 GNASH Cup championship game, as the winner would’ve ended up claiming the regular season championship a week later. The Bruins started out strong, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, before the Raptors not only came back, but went up 5-2, before Brentwood fought all the way back to tie the game at 5, before Owen Gilroy scored the winner in the third, and the Raptors held on from there.

#8 - 2023 Predators Cup First Round - #5 Pope Prep-CPA-GCA vs. #4 Brentwood - 31 January - The legend of Knights goalie Anthony Pellegrino began in this game. He made 23 saves on 24 shots in a goaltending duel with Georgi Khatchaturyan. After a goalless first, Aidan Pustizzi scored early in the second to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. With just 16 seconds left in the second, Jacob Sullivan tied the game, with Cash Branyan scoring the winner early in the third. Unfortunately, this ended up being a meaningless victory for Pope in the end (one of my many knocks against the double-elimination format is that a win isn’t meaningful right away unless the consequence is that the loser is immediately eliminated). The very next week, they lost their Winners’ Bracket Semifinal to Mt. Juliet, and were knocked out two nights later by Father Ryan. Brentwood managed to get all the way to the Losers’ Bracket Final before falling to the Bears. That’s why it’s ranked lower than one game from the current season.

#7 - Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb vs. Montgomery Bell - 13 November - One of the many goaltending clinics that Hunter Wieck has put on so far in this current season, and this one was his best. After falling behind 2-0 on goals by Matthew Moore and Lee Guy, the Ice Tigers fought back in the second from tallies by Jax Dooner and Justin Nozko. Ensworth pretty much controlled the game from then on, and Wieck had to be at 110% to preserve the tie. Duke D’Alba missed a glorious opportunity to give the Big Red the win late. Such a moment could prove pivotal in the ongoing GNASH Cup race.

#6 - 2023 Henry Hine Cup First Round - #6 Centennial vs. #3 Hendersonville-Beech - 1 February - This was the best first round game for either tournament. Colin Smith scored late in the first to give the Commandos a 1-0 lead, before Aiden Knecht tied the game with just 17 seconds left in the second, when an Alex Aziminia shot that hit something in traffic and went up in the air, coming down right where Knecht was waiting in front of the net. Knecht then scored the game-winner in overtime when Tree Garrison fumbled the puck from a Knecht shot, and it went in behind him, this just after Connor Smith hit the post at the other end. But the star for the Cougars was goalie Andrew Stratton, who made 27 saves on 28 shots. The Commandos would manage to win their first elimination game against Independence two nights later, before being knocked out by the 1 seeded Outlaws the following Wednesday. Centennial…well, let’s just say they went pretty far.

#5 - 2023 Predators Cup Losers’ Bracket Semifinal - #7 Father Ryan vs. #5 Brentwood - 13 February - Father Ryan’s run through the losers’ bracket in the 2023 Predators Cup was one of the best stories of the year. After being clobbered by Ravenwood in the opening round, the Irish went on a run that saw them knock out 6 seeded Franklin-BGA, then 4 seeded Pope. And for a while, it looked like the 5 seeded Bruins would be their next victims. The Irish went up 2-0 nearly four-and-a-half minutes in on goals from Colton Edwards and Austin Hester, and for a little bit, it looked like they’d make it 3-0. Brentwood finally got on the board just past the halfway point of the second, with ex-Ryan player Luc Oelhaefen and Stevie Lipa scoring 50 seconds apart to tie the game. JT Schmidt gave Father Ryan the lead back just a few minutes later, only for Brentwood to tie the game just seven seconds into the third, when Aidan Pustizzi one-timed the puck from the slot. The Irish won the draw to start overtime, but Schmidt rushed a pass to Hester, and Brentwood took it the other way, where Lipa scored to crush the Irish’s hopes of knocking out another seed above them.

#4 - 2023 Henry Hine Cup Losers’ Bracket Semifinal - #5 Summit-Page vs. #1 Tennessee Outlaws - 13 February - Immediately after the Ryan-Brentwood game, we had this gem, which played out a bit differently, though it ended in overtime with the exact same score. I rank it higher because the spread between the seeds was bigger. Every time the Spartans would score, the Outlaws would manage to answer. Unfortunately for them, this pattern extended into overtime, as Cam White took the opening faceoff into Tennessee’s zone, and completed his hat trick just 13 seconds into the extra frame, sending the 1 seed to a farm upstate, and keeping the number of GNASH trophies won by supplemental teams at zero. The Spartans, though, would suffer the same fate as the Bruins, losing the Losers’ Bracket Final to USN-BA-Nashville Christian in a heartbreaker.

#3 - 2023 Predators Cup Losers’ Bracket Final - #5 Brentwood vs. #1 Mt. Juliet-Green Hill-Lebanon - 15 February - It really looked like the Bruins were going to end up in the Preds Cup Final. This was Chris Orem’s Brentwood: They weren’t dead until they were dead. But Robbie Simonik wouldn’t let that happen, turning away shot-after-shot, and late in the third, Braylen Cox scored the game-winner before adding an empty-netter to seal the victory. It put away what might be the last good Brentwood team for a long time, as lack of sufficient ice in Williamson County is finally catching up to those programs, it seems.

#2 - 2023 Henry Hine Cup Winners’ Bracket Semifinal #2 - #6 Centennial vs. #2 Nolensville-Ensworth-Lipscomb - 6 February - Surprisingly, this was the only game of the entire 2023 GNASH postseason to be decided in a shootout. Tied at 3 late in regulation, Owen Boyer scored on a backhand shot from right in front of the net to give the Cougars a 4-3 lead with 2:23 left. Almost exactly two minutes later, Henry Cravens scored his second goal of the game with the Knights’ net empty to the game at 4. Nolensville had a power play late in the overtime, and Andrew Stratton made save-after-save, including an incredible stick save on Ben Sonkin in the final minute. The Cougars killed the penalty, and it was off to a shootout. In the fifth round of the shootout, Cravens had a chance to win the game, and, for a moment, it looked like he’d scored, as a video taken from behind the Centennial net showed the puck actually crossing the line, and coming out from underneath the net, being lifted by Stratton’s right leg; but the goal was waved off, and Boyer scored the winner in the next round. This is easily the most controversial finish to a GNASH game I can remember. Sadly for Nolensville, there was no redemption, as they were eliminated by Summit two nights later (all of the Top 3 seeds for the Hine Cup - Outlaws, Nolensville, and Hendersonville - were eliminated over the next week). The Cougars, of course, went on to win the Hine Cup, becoming the fifth team in GNASH history to have won the GNASH, Predators, and Hine Cups.

#1 - 2023 Predators Cup Final: Mt. Juliet-Green Hill-Lebanon vs. Ravenwood - Did you really think any other game would get the top ranking? An incredible showdown to close out the season for the top tier; Robbie Simonik’s amazing play in goal got the game to go to overtime, and gave the Bears a chance to force the If Necessary Game, before Zach Egli, on a four-game goal-scoring streak that dated back to the Raptors’ regular season finale against Rutherford on January 26, roofed the puck into the net on a great individual effort to give the Raptors’ a record seventh Predators Cup title.

The regular newsletter resumes service next Sunday, January 7, 2024. As the Senior Game is next Monday, the 8th, and MTSN is NOT broadcasting it, there will be just three newsletters next week: next Sunday, plus Wednesday the 10th, and Thursday the 11th. Until then…