Tonight’s broadcast

#4 Hendersonville-Beech-Lawson vs. #1 Ravenwood - 7:35 PM pregame, 7:40 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Previewing tonight’s games

The game that MTSN will be broadcasting is in BOLD.

Predators Cup Losers’ Bracket first round
#4 Hendersonville-Beech-Lawson vs. #1 Ravenwood - 7:40 PM @ Centennial A
How they got here:
-Hendersonville: lost 5-4 to Franklin in the first round last Tuesday
-Ravenwood: lost 7-4 to Station Camp in the first round last Wednesday
Regular season meeting: Ravenwood won 8-4 on September 22
In the first elimination game of the Predators Cup last year, the 8 seeded Outlaws defeated 5 seeded JPII-MLK 5-4. It wasn’t just the first elimination game of the Predators Cup, however; it was the first elimination game of the entire GNASH playoffs, meaning that JPII were unexpectedly the first team in the entire league having to bring their 2024-25 season to an end. Whoever loses this game will be the first one in the league bringing their entire 2025-26 season to an end (unless it goes so long that the Ensworth/MBA game wraps up first), and that’s infinitely more stunning than JPII’s loss last year. If you asked me to rank all eight teams by likelihood of winning this tournament, these two would’ve been at the very top, ranked 1 and 2 in either order. I mean, one game into the postseason on a nine-game unbeaten run, and the other literally WON THE GNASH CUP AS REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS! So, how did we get here? Let’s start with Hendersonville: All season, head coach Seth Lake has been telling his team to play a dump-and-chase game to establish a forecheck. It worked from about the sixth game of the regular season until after the Commandos went up 2-0 against Franklin nearly six minutes in last week. The players then deviated from that strategy, and the Admirals ended up taking the game from them. What about Ravenwood? They seemed to do the same thing: Sit back and hope the game would come to them, and Station Camp just went and took it. However, one wonders what would’ve happened had Anthony Maltese’s goal that would’ve made it 3-1 late in the first hadn’t been waved off due to a dislodged net. Who will Ravenwood go with in goal tonight: Colin Gower or Reese Mackenzie? Mackenzie may have given up six of the seven goals (the last one was an empty-netter), but her teammates didn’t give her much help. At one point, they had half the number of shots that the Bison did. You can’t win the game if you don’t chase it. And that leads me to another thought: If either of these teams want to win this thing, they’re going to have to commit to playing a lot of hockey over the next four weeks; they’ll have to win the next four games just to get to the championship round, then they’ll have to win the first championship game to force the If Necessary. How bad do you want it? Gideon Drobnick is suspended for tonight’s game because he was called for four penalties against Franklin last week; it’s the first time Hendersonville have had a player suspended this season, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time, especially because he’s one of their best players. For my money, this is the biggest Losers’ Bracket game in GNASH history. Whoever loses, especially if it’s Ravenwood, is going to give those four teams still in the Winners’ Bracket a lot of hope.

Game prediction: Ravenwood

Consequences of this game’s result: Winner plays the Nolensville/Page loser in a Losers’ Bracket Quarterfinal on February 18 @ 7:10 PM @ Centennial A, while the loser is eliminated

#6 Ensworth-Lipscomb-CPA vs. #2 Montgomery Bell - 8:15 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
How they got here:
-Ensworth: lost 3-1 to Page in the first round last Wednesday
-MBA: lost 2-1 to Nolensville in the first round last Wednesday
Regular season meeting: MBA won 7-3 on September 29
Both teams suffered frustrating losses last Wednesday, but MBA’s was clearly the more frustrating of the two: Outshoot the Knights by nearly double (37-19), get Bingston Soundara’d, and Spencer Kern scores on two of the few chances that Nolensville got. Meanwhile, Ensworth went shot-for-shot with Page (outshooting them 33-32), but Page converted more of their opportunities. To be honest, I wouldn’t have ranked either of these two very high on my list of likely tournament winners: MBA’s goal scoring numbers were massively inflated against bad teams, and even though Ensworth did get better as the season went on, it was clear that the Nolensville breakup left a few holes to be filled. Both of these teams are filled with great players, but I’m not sure either team is fully equipped to win it all. This game will come down to goaltending, and even though I thought Reuben Allen got better as the season went on, I’d still lean towards Tripp Bland in this one.

Game prediction: MBA

Consequences of this game’s result: Winner plays the Station Camp/Franklin loser in a Losers’ Bracket Quarterfinal on February 18 @ 8:45 PM @ Centennial A, while the loser is eliminated

Henry Hine Cup first round
#7 Clarksville Kings vs. #2 Independence-Centennial - 6:30 PM @ Centennial B
Regular season records
-Kings: 3-12-0 (finished 15th)
-Independence: 5-8-2 (finished 10th)
Regular season meeting: Kings won 5-2 on October 29
When these two teams met back in late October, they’d both started the young season pretty well, each having won two games. After this game, both teams fortunes changed: Clarksville would lose their remaining ten games of the regular season, while Indy kicked off a three-game losing streak that took any hopes of winning the GNASH Cup off of the table; they still had a chance to qualify for the Predators Cup, but inconsistency at the end of the regular season doomed that, too. In their first five games of the regular season, Clarksville were 3-2-0, and scored 27 goals; in their ten-game losing streak to end the regular season, they only scored eight, but this was mostly due to the fact that they had to play seven of the eight teams that qualified for the Preds Cup (they started the season against the eighth, Station Camp). The other three games in that ten-game run, though, were against Hine Cup-qualified teams - Father Ryan, JPII, and Brentwood - and they lost all of those, too, only scoring one goal in any of them, that coming against Brentwood. Indy at least hung around in some of the games they lost after that, and picked up some wins, one of which was against Ravenwood. It’s been almost a month since the Kings last set foot on the ice; what have they been working on in hopes of turning things around? (They did play a couple of exhibition games in Kentucky this past weekend, so, they haven’t been slacking.) I’m not sure that they’ll be able to stop the Eagles from getting revenge this time around. Indy head coach Mark Layne wraps up his two-game suspension for what happened in the Outlaws game on January 12, while Owen Brought serves the second of his 11-game suspension for his actions at the end of that game.

Game prediction: Indy

Consequences of this game’s result: The winner will play the Brentwood/Outlaws winner in a Winners’ Bracket Semifinal on February 17 @ 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North, while the loser will play the Brentwood/Outlaws loser in an elimination game on Wednesday @ 8:30 PM @ Centennial B

#6 Brentwood-BA-USN vs. #3 Tennessee Outlaws - 6:30 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
Regular season records
-Brentwood: 3-10-2 (finished 14th with 8 points, but had fewer wins than Mt. Juliet)
-Outlaws: 4-9-2 (finished 11th, ahead of JPII on head-to-head)
Regular season meeting: 4-4 tie on December 15
I was initially planning on doing this game, until Hendersonville and Ravenwood decided to lose their Preds Cup openers and play a game of chicken against one another to see who survives. Both of these teams had very opposite five-game stretches to close the regular season: Brentwood won three out of their last five (including a win over a suddenly-resurging Station Camp), while the Outlaws only won one of their last five. They kicked off said five-game closing stretches against one another, then both went in opposite directions in terms of closing form. Let’s talk about Brentwood first. The win over Station Camp was a case of Andrew Sallee made a bunch of saves, and the Bruins cashed in on two of the few chances they had. In the wins over the Kings and Rampage, though, Brentwood were firmly in control the whole time (well, most of the time against the Rampage, who made it 5-4 with just over six minutes left, then couldn’t score again). If you look at the scoresheets of each of those five games, three names pop up quite a bit: Jack Riley (freshman), Beckett Mickle (freshman), and Joey Fried (junior). They’ve needed goalscorers to start to emerge as the season went on, and these three have stepped up. Brentwood are beginning to feel more like a team instead of just a one-man operation bandaging a lack of scoring depth. The Outlaws, of course, have relied on the dangerous duo of Josh Kuehn and Clive Keeler throughout the season, and Dawson Reynolds helped steal a game from Ravenwood back in December, exactly a week before the Bruins beat Station Camp. I think Brentwood have the momentum, and I’m picking them to win this one. Logan Wood is wrapping up his two-game suspension for his fight with Owen Brought in the aforementioned Indy game (he’s serving the one game he got for being called for four penalties in that one); meanwhile, I don’t see Bob Cobb on the suspensions page. He got a match penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Outlaws rep Tom Spychalski told me that what he said to get it “wasn’t worth repeating.” Either it was rescinded (or downgraded), or the suspension hasn’t been posted.

Game prediction: Brentwood

Consequences of this game’s result: The winner will play the Kings/Independence winner in a Winners’ Bracket Semifinal on February 17 @ 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North, while the loser will play the Kings/Independence loser in an elimination game on Wednesday @ 8:30 PM @ Centennial B

#5 Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Lebanon vs. #4 JPII-MLK-GCS - 8:15 PM @ Centennial B
Regular season records
-Mt. Juliet: 4-10-0 (finished 13th with 8 points, but had more wins than Brentwood)
-JPII: 4-9-2 (finished 12, below the Outlaws on head-to-head)
Regular season meeting: JPII won 3-2 on December 10
For much of this season, the Bears were a tough team to beat. In that seven-game stretch where they picked up their four wins, they lost two games by one goal, and another by two. Their final two games where they got absolutely pounded by Father Ryan and MBA would feel like an anomaly if the Irish weren’t the Hine Cup 1 seed. Jordan Antar made a triumphant return to the team after a season away, leading them in scoring by a big margin (24 points from 15 goals and 9 assists), but only Cade Ellenburg also cracked double-digits in points (12 from 7G and 5A). Meanwhile, JPII were pretty decent when you consider that they’re the youngest team in the league this season. But unlike MJ, who lost four games by one goal, the Knights lost none by a goal; their closest defeat was the 4-2 loss to Father Ryan back on November 10. Their leading scorer was their lone senior Ian Sullivan, who had 15 points, but only two of those were goals. Oscar Ford, who hasn’t played since the win over Station Camp on January 5, was the leading goalscorer with eight, and Reese Davidson had seven. Joe Hiller only had three goals. This might be another low-scoring affair; I hope it’s a good game.

Game prediction: JPII

Consequences of this game’s result: The winner will play Father Ryan in a Winners’ Bracket Semifinal on Thursday @ 8:45 PM @ Antioch-North, while the loser will play the Rutherford Rampage in an elimination game tomorrow @ 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North

Brackets

Predators Cup

Henry Hine Cup

The rest of this week’s schedule

The games that MTSN is planning to broadcast are in BOLD.

Tomorrow
Henry Hine Cup Losers’ Bracket first round
#8 Rutherford Rampage vs. Mt. Juliet/JPII loser - 8:30 PM @ Antioch-North

Wednesday
All games will be played @ Centennial.
Predators Cup Winners’ Bracket Semifinals - both games on Rink A
#8 Station Camp-Liberty Creek-Nashville Christian vs. #5 Franklin - 7:10 PM
#7 Nolensville vs. #3 Page-Summit - 8:30 PM

Henry Hine Cup Losers’ Bracket first round
Brentwood/Outlaws loser vs. Kings/Independence loser - 8:30 PM on Rink B

Thursday
Henry Hine Cup Winners’ Bracket Semifinal
Mt. Juliet/JPII winner vs. #1 Father Ryan - 8:45 PM @ Antioch-North

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