Tonight’s broadcast

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb vs. Summit-Page - 8:25 PM pregame, 8:30 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Senior Night ceremonies

Brentwood and the Rutherford Rampage are having their Senior Night ceremonies tonight.

Scenarios for tonight

JPII-MLK will clinch a Predators Cup berth if they DEFEAT Centennial-FRA.

Summit-Page will clinch a Predators Cup berth if they DEFEAT Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb, OR they TIE with Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb, AND Centennial-FRA LOSE TO OR TIE WITH JPII-MLK.

Father Ryan will end up with a place in the Henry Hine Cup if they LOSE TO Brentwood.

Summit-Page, JPII-MLK, AND Montgomery Bell will all be eliminated from contention for the GNASH Cup regular season championship if the Ensworth/Summit game ends in a TIE.

Those three teams plus Franklin and Hendersonville-Beech-Lawson will all be eliminated from contention for the GNASH Cup regular season championship if Ensworth DEFEAT Summit.

Previewing tonight’s games

The game that MTSN will broadcast is in BOLD.

Centennial-FRA (4-7-0) vs. JPII-MLK (7-3-0) - 5:30 PM @ Centennial A
So, win-and-you’re-in. It’s that simple for the Knights, as they look to lock down the fifth Predators Cup berth. Logic dictates that they’ll be facing Drew Stratton in the Cougar crease tonight, as he and David Busby have literally been alternating starts this entire season, and Busby played in goal against Indy last Wednesday. The Cougars can still get into the Preds Cup, but considering how weak they are in terms of depth, do they really want to? I know it’s good to challenge yourselves against the best, but Centennial have 19 players, and they have a very decent chance of winning the Hine Cup, because the field for it is going to be so weak. JPII, meanwhile, are coming off of a 5-4 win over the Rampage last Monday, where they nearly blew a 4-1 lead, with RuCo getting within 4-3, needing a late winner from Clayton Roach to save the win (Josh Wolfe scored the last goal with just nine seconds left). I would bet that they’re going with Jacob Benoit tonight, in order to get business taken care of.

Pick: JPII

Montgomery County Rangers (0-11-0) vs. Rutherford Rampage (4-9-0) - 7:05 PM @ Centennial A
I’m not going to type too many words about this game, since both teams are Hine Cup-bound. However, this could be the 1 vs. 8 matchup in the opening round. And likely getting the Rangers as your opening round opponent is probably the one single reason to chase the Hine Cup 1 seed, as I don’t think any seed between 2 and 7 will matter, since, like I said, the field is going to be so weak. This will be the Rampage’s most likely shot to stake a claim to the top seed, because this is their next-to-last game of the regular season, and their final one is against Hendersonville, while Station Camp have at least the Rangers and Indy before going up against JPII. Oh, by the way, that Hendersonville/Rutherford game isn’t until January 27. So, the Rampage are going to have a long layoff (49 days, to be exact).

Pick: Rutherford

Brentwood (3-9-1) vs. Father Ryan (2-7-1) - 7:40 PM @ Centennial B
So, the Bruins are once again off to the Hine Cup, making me wonder how they’ll approach this game, and then their regular season finale against Indy on January 13? They’re still in with a shout at the 1 seed, which, again, will likely face the Rangers to start the tournament, so, there’s no reason not to chase it. But do the Bruins give Collier Owen the start in goal tonight? Yes, it’s their Senior Night, but Andrew Sallee is a sophomore, so, starting Owen wouldn’t be depriving Sallee of a special start. Meanwhile, the Irish still have a (very) small chance of still getting into the Predators Cup. Considering that they still have to play Ravenwood and Summit, I don’t like their chances. They and Brentwood are quite alike in the fact that their offense has been carried by literally two players (Colin Sullivan and Gage Hart; Jack Schultz and Zane Cesarone have carried the Bruins, with Callahan Fielder being an occasional good third wheel in the cog), although Ryan at least have an excuse, because they have 10 freshmen, whereas the Bruins have seven seniors, but only two of them can claim to be among some of the league’s best (if this were ten years ago, when A-Game existed, all seven of those Brentwood seniors would absolutely be among the league’s best). This game is hard to predict, though, because of the current factors. Who do Ryan start in goal: Zach Fonnesbeck, or Jack Karpynec? Well, I don’t know, because I’ll be in Bellevue, so, I’m just gonna make my prediction now.

Pick: Ryan

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb (11-0-2) vs. Summit-Page (7-2-1) - 8:30 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
So, here’s something crazy: If Ensworth win tonight, and Ravenwood lose either of their two games this week, Ensworth will win the GNASH Cup regular season championship! Yes, there’s a chance of the regular season championship being claimed BEFORE the holiday break! I’d say the chance is at 1%, because I can’t see the Raptors losing to either Hendersonville or Father Ryan, and also, the Ice Tigers are playing a Summit team starting to hit its stride. This is the fourth team of the league’s current Top 6 that Ensworth have faced this season; they’ve played Franklin (2nd), Hendersonville (4th), and JPII (6th), and have scored three goals against each of them, beating all three of them by the exact same score of 3-0. They’ll be looking for one more win to go into the holiday break, setting up a showdown with Ravenwood on January 13 to close out the regular season (that game was originally scheduled for October 7, so, tonight’s game was to be Ensworth’s regular season finale). The Spartans look to be a different team since bouncing back from the two-game losing streak in October, with the tie with Ravenwood last Wednesday being their best result of the season so far (I actually think they played against Ravenwood better than they did against the Outlaws on Friday, though, some of the younger players were getting more time against Tennessee). Both teams match up really well. We might be talking about an easy candidate for Game of the Season by the time this one is over.

Pick: Summit

Hendersonville-Beech-Lawson (8-2-1) vs. Montgomery Bell (6-2-2) - 8:35 PM @ Centennial A
So, the Commandos have locked up a Preds Cup berth, meaning that they now have nothing to lose for the rest of the regular season; they very likely aren’t going to win the GNASH Cup regular season championship, so, chasing a good seed will now probably be their priority. They’re taking on an MBA team who are a bit further away from the Preds Cup berth than you’d expect. The Big Red need three more points to clinch a berth to the big show. This is because they can still be passed by four teams below ninth place who have not yet been sentenced to the Hine Cup (they are Centennial, Station Camp, Indy, and Ryan). Of those four, Station Camp own the head-to-head tiebreaker on MBA (remember, they beat them 4-2 back on October 21), so, if these two teams finish with the same number of points, and wins (most wins is the first tiebreaker), the Bison would be put ahead of MBA on the second tiebreaker. And the Commandos will not be a pushover for MBA tonight (neither will their opponent this Friday, the Outlaws). While the Big Red have improved since the loss to Station Camp (we’ll ignore the loss to Ravenwood a week later, since it wasn’t unexpected, although, they did play better than I thought they would), the Commandos have not fallen off like people (including their own coaching staff) thought they would. They’ve beaten Summit, and only lost 3-0 to Ensworth. They are a tough team to beat, and MBA will have to be on their game to put them away. That said, I think they’ll come away with the win.

Pick: MBA

Standings

The rest of this week’s schedule

The game that MTSN is planning to broadcast is in BOLD. MTSN’s game for Wednesday will be determined by the result of the Ensworth/Summit game tonight. Teams that are having a Senior Night ceremony prior to their game on that particular night are underlined.

Wednesday
All games are being played @ Centennial.
Montgomery County Rangers vs. Station Camp-Liberty Creek - 7:10 PM on Rink A
Ravenwood vs. Hendersonville-Beech-Lawson - 8:35 PM on Rink B
Tennessee Outlaws vs. JPII-MLK - 8:45 PM on Rink A

Thursday
Father Ryan vs. Centennial-FRA - 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North

Friday
Montgomery Bell vs. Tennessee Outlaws - 5:40 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
Ravenwood vs. Father Ryan - 5:45 PM @ Antioch-North

Podcasts

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The next newsletter comes out tomorrow, December 10.