Tonight’s broadcast schedule

Father Ryan vs. Pope Prep-MLK-GCA - 5:10 PM pregame, 5:15 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK
Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb vs. Montgomery Bell - 6:40 PM pregame, 6:45 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Previewing tonight’s games

Games that are being broadcast by MTSN are in BOLD. Because it’s the second half of the regular season, each team’s record will appear as 0-0-0 (except for Station Camp-Liberty Creek, who have already played a second half game). Beginning in tomorrow’s newsletter, there will be two records posted next to each of the six Tier 1 teams that can win the GNASH Cup: their second half record, and their GNASH Cup race record.

Father Ryan (0-0-0) vs. Pope Prep-MLK-GCA (0-0-0) - 5:15 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
It’s a rematch of the September 27 game, where the Fighting Irish defeated the Knights 4-1. Both teams - who each went 3-4-0 in the first half - had first halves that started and ended differently. The Irish got off to an impressive start, beating Ravenwood and Pope, allowing only one goal to each, and sat on their 2-0 record for three weeks. When they got back on the ice, their next two games were the opposite of the first two; first, Brentwood beat them 7-0, followed by Montgomery Bell beating them 8-3 two nights later. The following Monday, they snapped the losing streak against a Rutherford team that didn’t have its top goaltender in Jackson Wilson, before closing out the first half with a 3-0 loss to Franklin, and then a 3-2 loss to Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill last Monday. So, the Irish lost four of their last five, but in the latter two losses to Franklin and MJ, they managed to play much better defense than they had against Brentwood and MBA, but still not as well as they played against the Raptors and Pope. Zach Fonnesbeck, impressive in the first two games, easily got rattled by how much Brentwood had gotten to him, and then that carried over to the MBA game. The Rutherford game, where he only allowed one goal, despite all the peppering from Justin Dickinson and Co., allowed him to course correct, and get his confidence back. It should be noted that Franklin’s third goal in the game was an empty netter, and just past the halfway point of the MJ game, he was swapped out for backup Riley Barnes, who gave up the winning goal, but otherwise performed pretty well himself. Meanwhile, Pope played their first four games in a ten-day stretch, with varying results. They opened with a 2-1 win over Mt. Juliet on September 25, then the loss to the Irish two nights later, followed by a tough 3-1 loss to MBA on October 2, then a 6-4 defeat against Franklin on October 4. They returned to the ice 16 days later on October 20, where they beat a Rampage team decimated by injuries and travel absences 12-2, then the big 4-0 shutout of Brentwood the following Monday, before concluding the first half on November 1 with a 4-2 loss to Ravenwood where they had jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Pope’s big issue in the first half was puck luck. In most of their games, they outshot their opposition, but couldn’t get the puck to go into the net. They have plenty of goalscorers (most notably Erik Kihlberg and Jacob Sullivan), and their young players (such as David Bavas) look like seasoned veterans. And of course, Anthony Pellegrino is fantastic in the crease. When all three aspects of their game work, the Knights are hard to beat.

I’m picking Pope to get revenge.

Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb (0-0-0) vs. Montgomery Bell (0-0-0) - 6:45 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
And so, the Ice Tigers (7-0-0 in Tier 2 in the first half) begin their foray into Tier 1, and they will be tested right out of the gate by the Big Red (6-0-1 in the first half). Ensworth scored 50 goals in the first half; they will not score that many against Tier 1 competition. But I have a feeling that they will win some games against Tier 1 teams. They have Tier 1-caliber players, particularly Ben Sonkin, Hudson Honeybone, and Trex Hooper. The main thing is, their goaltenders are going to get quite a test tonight. Whoever has to face the Big Red’s top line of Lee Guy, Matthew Moore, and Trace Graham - whether it’s Reuben Allen or Bingston Soundara - is going to have to be on their game from the outset. And their Tier 2-best offense has to face Hunter Wieck, the best goalie they’ve faced so far (USN’s Ben Schwarz is the best they’ve faced before tonight). It should be noted that, on the first night of the second half last season, MBA faced another newly-promoted team (Rutherford), and the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Ensworth will come at the Big Red fast and furious; JP Dumont’s boys will need to be ready. The good news for MBA is, they finally get Ethan Moore back in the lineup tonight, more than a month after he was given a four-game suspension for a checking from behind match penalty against Brentwood.

I’ll pick the Big Red to take this one.

Summit-Page (0-0-0) vs. Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill (0-0-0) - 7 PM @ Centennial B
The other team that came up from Tier 2 (who went 5-2-0 in the first half) also begin life as a Tier 1 team tonight, taking on the Predators Cup runners-up (2-4-1 in the first half). This is somewhat similar to the Ensworth-MBA game: a Tier 2 team with some pretty decent players (Hunter Haley, James Gilmartin, and Zach Ellis) taking on a Tier 1 team with a good top line (in this case, Jordan Antar, Carson Slocum, and Parker Triplett). And, as with Ensworth, Summit’s goaltender for tonight - either Brady Tessier or Seth Wagner - will be tested by them, as well as the likes of Bobby Kamos and Anthony Giampaolo. Who will Mt. Juliet start in goal is my question. They’ve spread out the starts among Korbin Vickrey, Brandt Balz, and Noah Smartt. Just like Ensworth, whoever it is will be the best goalie they’ve faced yet. So, why were the previews for this game and Ensworth-MBA short and the one for Ryan-Pope so long? Well, it’s because Ryan and Pope are Tier 1 teams facing each other; these latter two games feature a newly-promoted Tier 2 team taking on a Tier 1 team. You can compare Ryan and Pope because they faced the same teams in the first half. You can’t compare the first half opposition of Ensworth and Summit to those of MBA and Mt. Juliet.

Anyway, I’ll pick MJ in this one.

Tennessee Outlaws (0-0-0) vs. USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA-Goodpasture (0-0-0) - 7:40 PM @ Centennial A
These two teams met just 12 days ago on November 1, when the Outlaws (2-3-2) in the first half) snapped a four-game winless streak with a 5-1 win over USN (2-4-1). It was a pretty impressive rebound. And the win was against Ben Schwarz. But, as I said in the Centennial-Station Camp preview last week, the second half games for Tier 2 don’t matter. Yes, they’re playing for Hine Cup seeds, but, there’s no incentive to be a top seed; no bye into a later round. Centennial won the Hine Cup as a 6 seed last year. In their loss to Hendersonville last Wednesday, USN had Mattilda Cox in goal. I wouldn’t be surprised if USN did what Centennial did in the second half last year, and alternate starts for their goaltenders, so, I would guess that Schwarz will be in the crease tonight.

I’ll pick the Outlaws to sweep the season series.

Rutherford Rampage (0-0-0) vs. Independence-Ravenwood 2 (0-0-0) - 8:25 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
Hopefully, things go better for Rutherford (1-6-0 in Tier 1 in the first half) this time around. They’re starting off with a very winnable game tonight. Indy (0-6-1 in the first half) haven’t played since their first half finale on November 1, a 7-0 loss to Hendersonville. The Rampage might still be in Tier 1 if they’d just had some luck - their top goaltender, Jackson Wilson, being injured for three straight games (then the Brentwood game after that), not having practice for their last six games, meaning they couldn’t fix their problems, and backup goalie Abby Ricalday not getting any goal support until said Brentwood game (but it was too late by that point). They beat Ravenwood 5-1 on October 25, as Wilson put together an incredible performance, then got slapped by bad luck again with Wilson having to sit out the Brentwood game. Unfortunately, they can’t turn back the clock now. For me, they have a lot more depth than Indy, and will be a Hine Cup contender.

Give me the Rampage.

Station Camp-Liberty Creek (0-1-0) vs. Hendersonville-Beech-Gallatin (0-0-0) - 8:30 PM @ Centennial B
These two teams played a really good game last month, with the Commandos (4-1-2 in the first half) squeaking out a 1-0 win where Alex Williams scored the only goal just under four minutes in. It was the second in Hendersonville’s ongoing six-game unbeaten streak. For the Bison since then, they finally won a game (against Indy) and had a tie (with the Outlaws). However, they opened the second half last Wednesday with a 6-2 loss against Centennial where the Cougars dominated the second period. Hendersonville and Centennial are just about on the same level in terms of scoring depth, but I was still surprised by that result. This game could be just as difficult.

I’ll pick the Commandos here.

Standings

Final standings for the first half of the regular season

Second half Tier 2 standings after Centennial-Station Camp game

Tier 1 second half table

GNASH Cup standings

Wednesday’s schedule

The game that is being broadcast by MTSN is in BOLD.

Centennial vs. Tennessee Outlaws - 7:10 PM @ Centennial A
USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA-Goodpasture vs. Brentwood - 7:30 PM @ Antioch-North
Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill vs. Montgomery Bell - 8:30 PM @ Centennial B
Father Ryan vs. Franklin - 8:40 PM @ Centennial A
Ravenwood vs. Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb - 9:15 PM @ Antioch-South

NOTE: From this week forward, the weekly Wednesday game on the South Rink in Antioch will start at 9:15 PM so that the same set of officials can cover both games at the facility.

Podcasts

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Miscellaneous links

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The next newsletter comes out tomorrow, November 14.