Last night’s broadcasts

Tonight’s broadcast

Station Camp-Liberty Creek vs. Father Ryan - 8:20 PM pregame, 8:30 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Recapping last night’s games

Predators Cup Final
Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb 3, Ravenwood 2 (OT)
Nearly four minutes into the first period, Logan Campbell found Henry Cravens all alone in the right circle of the Ravenwood zone; Campbell fed Cravens the puck, and Cravens shot it into the back of the net, and Ensworth took that 1-0 lead into the second. Nearly five minutes into the second, Lucas Tarquine fed a centering pass to Jackson Malleus-Mayer in the slot, and he one-timed it into the left-hand side of the Raptors net to give the Ice Tigers a 2-0 lead. Exactly 4:30 later, Mason Reed sent a backhanded, cross-ice feed to Grady Fernan in the left circle, where he one-timed it into the back of the net to put Ravenwood on the board, and Ensworth led 2-1 after two, where the game was paused for an ice cut (the league only got the extra time to do so yesterday morning). Then, the game’s controversial moment: Near the halfway point of the third, Canon Kiser took a shot from the bottom of the right circle, that appeared to go off of Ensworth goalie Bingston Soundara, and the referee awarded a goal. The Ice Tigers protested, but it was not heeded, and so, for the second time in the last three years, the Preds Cup Final went to overtime, tied at 2-2. With just under five minutes to go in overtime, the puck took a carom at center ice, and came to Trex Hooper; he led a 2-on-0 with Spencer Kern, and when they approached the net, passed it across to Kern at the net’s right-hand side, where he redirected it into the back of the cage with the back of his stick blade curve, giving the Ice Tigers their second straight Predators Cup, and making them the first team to finish a GNASH season undefeated since Brentwood in 2010-11; Ensworth’s final record this season is 17-0-2. Bingston Soundara was named the Michell Mielnik MVP, making 34 saves on 36 shots.

Henry Hine Cup Losers’ Bracket Final
Station Camp-Liberty Creek 7, Brentwood 5
Just 81 seconds into the game, Joey Siciliano, in the left wing corner, found Dom DeMaria all alone in front of the Brentwood net; he fed him the puck, and DeMaria shot it into the right-hand side of the net, past Andrew Sallee’s right arm. Nearly three minutes later, Jack Schultz went all alone to the front of the Bison net; Carter Gilleece stopped his shot, but slid too far to his left, leaving the net wide open, where Zane Cesarone hammered in the rebound. Nearly six minutes later, the Bison regained the lead, when Gavin Cole found McClain Gregory in the slot, and he fired the puck into the right-hand side of the net. Just over two minutes later, with Brentwood on the power play, Schultz tied the game with a shot that went into the top left-hand corner of the net from the left circle. This kicked off a wacky sequence: Brentwood won the subsequent faceoff, and a cross-ice pass to Will Hubbard hit his stick, and stopped in front of the net, where Andrew Grooms poked the puck through Sallee’s legs using only his right hand. This was ten seconds after Schultz’s goal. Brentwood then won the subsequent faceoff, only for Station Camp to steal the puck, and Siciliano shot the it into the back of the net from the high slot, again, ten seconds later. The Bison carried a 4-2 lead into the second. 2:01 into the second, Cesarone took a shot from the right circle that was stopped by Gilleece, but the rebound came to Callahan Fielder, who knocked it in. Nearly nine minutes later, Gregory carried the puck down the Brentwood left wing, and dropped it back up the slot; it hit a Brentwood stick, and ended up in the crease, causing Sallee to back too far into the net, and Toby Mehaffy was able to jam the puck in. Just over two minutes later, with the Bison on the power play, Siciliano shot the puck through traffic into the bottom right-hand corner of the Brentwood net, and Station Camp led 6-3 after two. Just 97 seconds into the third, Brentwood got back within two, when Brody Bohman knocked in the rebound from a saved Cesarone shot underneath Gilleece and in. Just 12 seconds later, Hubbard made it 6-5, when he took a shot from the left point that ended up in the roof of the net. Brentwood had some great chances to tie it, but to no avail, and Mehaffy added the empty netter with 12.6 seconds left.

Next game for Station Camp-Liberty Creek: Tonight vs. Father Ryan in the Henry Hine Cup Final @ 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North

Brackets

Since the Predators Cup is finished, you can no longer click on the bracket image. You can however, click on the Hine Cup bracket image to see it on BracketHQ.com.

Predators Cup

Henry Hine Cup

Celebrating the Champions

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb
No departing Seniors
The Ice Tigers lost their one pure goalscorer (Ben Sonkin) to graduation, then the two players who would’ve filled that void (JT Borland and Justin Nozko) voluntarily departed the team. So, as Tim McAllister told me at the start of the season and in the post-game interview last night, scoring would be done “by committee.” And boy, did they. Seven players had ten or more points, and all of them had five or more goals. But they did struggle at times; the 1-1 tie with the Outlaws in November, and the 2-0 win over Summit-Page in December, where Bingston Soundara saved their butts in a game where the Ice Tigers were outshot 35-10, come to mind. But as we went on late in the season, they began to show their supremacy. Them finishing the season unbeaten is an enormous feat. So many teams have tried it and failed (heck, MBA and Brentwood carried perfect records into the Preds Cup Final in back-to-back years, only to lose, though Brentwood won the If Necessary, whereas MBA didn’t have that luxury). They’ll have a big senior class next year, and that will probably be the end of their run, but I am hearing from some very good sources that this co-op could look very different next season. Stay tuned. But for now, it’s good to be the king.

Requiem for the Runners-Up

Ravenwood
Departing Seniors: Owen Appel, Cooper Hill, Jake Lapinsky, Zeke Landkammer, Liam Powell
Cooper Hill’s season-ending injury didn’t hurt the Raptors that much. They still got a lot of chances on Soundara, but he turned most of them away. They were just beaten by - in my mind - a Top 3 GNASH goalie of all-time. That’s a good crop of seniors that they’re losing, but they’ll still have plenty of bullets in the gun: Mason Reed, Jake Farrell, Brady Friedman, Grady Fernan, Keaton Moffitt, and the excellent goaltending tandem of Colin Gower and Reese Mackenzie should be back next year, and Ravenwood will very likely find themselves in the Preds Cup Final again. Speaking of Mackenzie, I think she is probably the biggest breakout star in the league this season. She started out playing against a lot of weaker opponents, but as time went on, she was put into bigger and bigger games, and showed that she could handle it. In my mind, she’s already passed former Franklin goalie Abby Tanner as the best female goalie in GNASH history.

Requiem for the Eliminated

Brentwood
Departing Seniors: Zane Cesarone, Callahan Fielder, Payne Fielder, John Nance, Isabella Quigley, Caden Wernick
Again, Brentwood were in the Preds Cup Losers’ Bracket Final two years ago! Their downfall is maybe the biggest shock in GNASH history. Of their seven seniors, three of them - Quigley, Nance, and Wernick - have all been playing hockey for less than five years. Nance only started a year ago. That’s how difficult things have gotten. The fact that Payne Fielder was moved from goalie to skater shows that the numbers were starting to slip. That top line of Schultz-Cesarone-C. Fielder was one of the best in the league, and now it’s gone. And who do they have left besides Andrew Sallee? Brody Bohman has some potential. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Brentwood had to co-op next season. It’ll be ten years this summer since the A-Game saga began. Chris Orem was interviewed was Adam Vingan for The Tennessean in July 2015, and had this to say:

"The long-term impact will be the first-, second-, third-graders in Williamson County won’t be entering the system, the grassroots system to come up through. Eventually, three, four years down the road, Ravenwood, Brentwood and Centennial won’t have hockey teams. There simply isn’t a place to play."

Now, Ravenwood are still doing well, and Brentwood went on to win three straight Predators Cups from 2018 to 2020, but they and Centennial are suffering from the effects, and it will be a long time before they get back to where they once were.

Monday’s final scores

Predators Cup Losers’ Bracket Final
Ravenwood 4, Montgomery Bell 3 (OT) PODCAST LINK

Henry Hine Cup Losers’ Bracket Semifinal
Brentwood 2, Centennial-FRA 1 PODCAST LINK

Previewing tonight’s game

Henry Hine Cup Final @ Antioch-North
#1 Station Camp-Liberty Creek vs. #3 Father Ryan - 8:30 PM
Ryan are the home team, as they came out of the Winners’ Bracket.
How they got here
Station Camp:
-Defeated Montgomery County Rangers 8-1 on February 3 in the first round
-Defeated Centennial-FRA 4-3 on February 10 in a Winners’ Bracket Semifinal
-Lost 10-6 to Father Ryan last Thursday in the Winners’ Bracket Final
-Defeated Brentwood 7-5 last night in the Losers’ Bracket Final
Father Ryan:
-Defeated Independence-BA-USN-Nashville Christian 5-2 on February 5 in the first round
-Defeated Rutherford Rampage 6-2 on February 12 in a Winners’ Bracket Semifinal
-Defeated Station Camp-Liberty Creek 10-6 last Thursday in the Winners’ Bracket Final
Previous meetings this season: Station Camp won 5-2 on December 4, and Father Ryan won 10-6 last Thursday

Will fatigue be a factor for the Bison tonight? They had to run up-and-down the ice last night against Brentwood, especially when it came to dealing with the Schultz-Cesarone-C. Fielder top line. At the same time, they last played over 12 hours ago, whereas the Irish haven’t played in a week. Station Camp started fast in last week’s meeting, but the Irish jumped out in front, and by the time the Bison started making inroads, it was too late to overcome. The Bison will have to capitalize on a fast start tonight, and also, find a way to totally shut down Gage Hart and Colin Sullivan. On the other side, Ryan did a good job of shutting down the Bison’s other big guns, but Joey Siciliano still scored five goals (initially, it was four, but one of them has been changed to give him credit). Station Camp will be hungry and dying to force the If Necessary; Ryan will be hungry and dying to win it tonight. Let’s hope it’s as good as last night. There will be an ice cut following the second period. With a win, Father Ryan will become the sixth team in GNASH history to have won the Predators and Hine Cups (those five other teams have also won the GNASH Cup, which Father Ryan have never won). It will also mean that there would be no active GNASH teams that have won the Predators Cup, but no other GNASH trophies, a distinction that belongs to the Irish at the moment.

Pick: Station Camp

Consequences of this game’s result: Father Ryan win the Henry Hine Cup with a win, while a Station Camp win will force Monday’s If Necessary Game

Classic playoff broadcasts

Once again during this postseason, we will be uploading great GNASH playoff games of the past that were heard on MTSN. Uploads will take place every Tuesday and Friday during the postseason. Click HERE to go back in time!

Podcasts

As we did last year, game podcasts are being exclusively uploaded to our YouTube channel for this season. To subscribe so you don’t miss out, scroll down to the footer of this newsletter, and click on the play button to be taken to our channel.

Miscellaneous links

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The next newsletter comes out tomorrow, February 28. I will type it up tonight, and schedule it to be sent out at 7 AM tomorrow, like usual.