Tonight’s broadcast schedule

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb vs. Pope Prep-MLK-GCA - 7:05 PM pregame, 7:10 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Senior Night ceremonies

Senior Night ceremonies begin tonight. Centennial and Summit-Page will be having theirs this evening. Father Ryan were originally scheduled to do theirs tonight, but, they moved it to next Wednesday, when they take on Montgomery Bell.

Previewing tonight’s games

The game that MTSN is broadcasting is in BOLD.

The six Tier 1 teams who are competing for the GNASH Cup have two records: their second half record, and their GNASH Cup record. If a team has an asterisk (*) next to their GNASH Cup record, it means that they have been eliminated from GNASH Cup contention.

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb (2-1-1) vs. Pope Prep-MLK-GCA (2-1-0, 5-5-0) - 7:10 PM @ Centennial A
Both teams are coming back from the holiday break having won their last game before it. Pope are coming off of a 7-2 whipping of a Ravenwood team that looks like they’ve waved the white flag on this season back on December 4, while the Ice Tigers are coming off of a famous 3-2 win over Franklin on December 6, the first loss of the season for the Admirals, and one that kept the GNASH Cup race very alive. The scariest thing about that result is the fact that Ben Sonkin didn’t play, and they still won without him. Now, Ensworth have to turn around, and face Anthony Pellegrino in net. Pellegrino didn’t play in the Ravenwood game last month; instead, Jacob Benoit was given the start as a reward for his hard work in practice. One wonders if Benoit will get anymore starts before the playoffs, especially since Pope will be the busiest team over this five-week stretch to end the regular season, as they are the only team in the league with four games still to play, including tonight’s. Bingston Soundara was excellent in goal against Franklin last month, but will Tim McAllister go back to Reuben Allen for tonight? You know what else the Ensworth win over Franklin did? It kept Pope in the GNASH Cup race. For the second straight year, the Knights enter the new year still barely in the fight for the regular season championship. But the scenario doesn’t favor them. They must win all four of their remaining games, with Franklin losing all three of theirs (Pope and Franklin play each other on January 22, and the GNASH Cup could be on the line for Franklin to win, if Father Ryan beat Montgomery Bell next Wednesday), and Montgomery Bell at least going 1-2-0 (one win and two losses) or 0-1-2 (one loss and two ties) in their last three games. So, anything other than a win, and it’s just Franklin and MBA for the regular season championship. Ensworth can’t win the GNASH Cup, because they started in Tier 2, but they’re very much in the race for the Predators Cup 1 seed. But they can’t have a letdown from the Franklin win, because their closing stretch is tough. After tonight, they play the team they came up from Tier 2 with, Summit-Page, next Wednesday, and close the regular season against Father Ryan on January 22 (it’s also the final game of the regular season for the Irish). Their offense will have to beat Anthony Pellegrino early, and their defense will have to be as merciless as it was against MBA back in November. Pope will need to take advantage of their scoring chances, and minimize the Ice Tigers’ chances in their own zone.

I’ll go with Ensworth in this one.

Brentwood (2-1-1) vs. Centennial (3-1-0) - 8:30 PM @ Centennial B
Well, here we are. Ten years ago this March 1, these two teams played one of the great Preds Cup Finals at Bridgestone Arena, when the 5 seeded Cougars beat the 1 seeded Bruins 2-1 in overtime to win the Preds Cup for the second and most recent time in program history. Fast forward to 2024, and Centennial are the defending Henry Hine Cup champions, battling the Bruins for this year’s Hine Cup 1 seed. These two teams have not faced each other since October 3, 2022. That’s right: A full calendar year has passed since these two took to the ice against each other. Brentwood won that game 3-2, and then, both teams went in different directions. The Bruins comfortably kept their place in Tier 1 for the rest of the regular season, while Centennial fell into the midseason promotion/relegation round robin, and finished third, moving down to Tier 2. As mentioned, the Cougars won the Hine Cup, while Brentwood were knocked out of the Predators Cup in the Losers’ Bracket Final by Mt. Juliet-Green Hill-Lebanon, in what may well be their last shot at winning the Preds Cup for a while, since, as mentioned in the special New Year’s Eve letter, Williamson County hasn’t had sufficient ice since A-Game got rid of all their hockey stuff (No, Nolensville, you don’t count.). Then, Brentwood finished seventh in Tier 1 in the first half of this regular season, dropping to Tier 2 with Rutherford, while Centennial left points on the table in games against USN, Hendersonville, and Independence, letting a chance to move back up to Tier 1 slip away. Centennial haven’t played since November 29, when they were beaten convincingly by Rutherford 4-2, their first loss of the second half, snapping a three-game winning streak. Meanwhile, Brentwood were seconds away from beating Hendersonville-Beech-Gallatin on December 6, only for Merrick Mott to intercept a cross-ice pass attempt right at the Bruins’ blue line, eventually ending in Gideon Drobnick scoring a tying goal with six seconds left, and the game finishing 3-3 (thank you to the HHS Ice Hockey social media accounts for capturing LiveBarn footage, and posting the clips!). Both teams have a tough stretch to close the regular season, especially Brentwood, who, after tonight, still have to play Rutherford and the Outlaws. And Centennial still have to play Hendersonville, who they tied with 4-4 on October 16, as well as Indy, who they should beat this time around. When it comes to this game, Brentwood have the advantage on offense, but Centennial have better defense and goaltending. They’re also better physically, boasting Calvin Zacharias and Rhett Gordon. Clayton Ellsworth vs. Aiden Knecht should be a fun watch.

I’m picking Brentwood.

Father Ryan (2-2-0, 5-6-0*) vs. Summit-Page (3-1-0) - 8:40 PM @ Centennial A
Both teams are coming off of differing results from their most recent games; Father Ryan lost to Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill 3-2 for the second time this season (and by “second time”, I mean losing to Mt. Juliet AND losing to them by that final score) on December 4, which officially knocked them out of GNASH Cup contention, while Summit beat Ravenwood 4-0 on December 6, two nights after being gifted a 7-1 win against MBA, when Hunter Wieck was healthy-scratched for the night. The Spartans have been a pleasant surprise so far, and find themselves atop the Tier 1 second half standings. Like Franklin and Ensworth, they boast quite a bit of offense, especially Zach Ellis, who has an astounding 10 points so far this second half. He and the rest of the Summit-Page stars will very likely see Zach Fonnesbeck in goal tonight for the Irish, and the last time Summit faced a good goalie, they were stymied; on November 27, they lost 4-2 to Pope, thanks to another Anthony Pellegrino goaltending clinic. Meanwhile, whoever Greg Sauers gives the crease to tonight for Summit - Brady Tessier or Seth Wagner - will once again need to be on their game, as they face a very good top line of Austin Hester, Colin Sullivan, and Colton Edwards. Wagner was tremendous against the Big Red’s top line of Lee Guy, Matthew Moore, and Trace Graham last month. There’s no reason he couldn’t do it again. Both teams have tough remaining schedules after tonight; they both still have to face Ensworth (again, in Summit’s case), while Ryan also have to play MBA, and Summit also must play Franklin.

I’ll pick Summit in this one.

Rutherford Rampage (3-1-0) vs. Station Camp-Liberty Creek (2-3-0) - 8:40 PM @ Antioch-North
Both teams experienced different results the last time they played on December 6: Rutherford lost 4-1 to USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA-Goodpasture to see their perfect start to the second half snapped, while the Bison completed a regular season sweep of Independence-Ravenwood 2 with a 7-0 beatdown. This game is big for the Bison’s hopes of securing a Top 4 Hine Cup seed, especially since they only have one game left after tonight, and it’s not until January 29 against the Outlaws. Rutherford, meanwhile, need to see through this winnable game to stay in the race for the Hine Cup 1 seed, as they still have to play the Outlaws and Brentwood. They’ll need the likes of Justin Dickinson and Eddie Maze to step up offensively to make sure they get the win. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alec Dawes was back in net tonight. If he is, then things will be tough for Station Camp’s stars like Joey Siciliano and Mark White in their hunt for an upset.

I think the Rampage will win this one.

Standings

Monday’s final scores

There were no regular games on Monday, as the Senior Game was played in Bellevue.

All-Star Game update

The All-Star Game has been scheduled for February 28, but will very likely be pushed back to the next week, thanks to the games that were scheduled for next Monday being moved to February 5. As I said in the schedule update on Monday, the regular season for TSSAA spring sports begins the first week of March, so, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of GNASH’s spring sports athletes end up declining an invite. I hope we get enough players for the game, otherwise, we might not be able to play it until the summer.

Podcasts

All MTSN game podcasts will be uploaded exclusively to YouTube this season. To subscribe to our YouTube channel, scroll down to the footer of this newsletter, and click on the play button to be taken to our channel.

Miscellaneous links

Follow @MTSNGNASHScores on Twitter (we refuse to call it X) to get the scores for every GNASH game.

Sign up HERE to get GNASH games scores sent to your phone or email.

The next newsletter comes out tomorrow, January 11.