Tonight’s MTSN GNASH broadcast schedule

Father Ryan vs. Ravenwood - 4:45 PM pregame, 5:15 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK
Independence-Ravenwood B vs. Tennessee Outlaws - 6:35 PM pregame, 6:45 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK
Brentwood vs. Franklin - 8:10 PM pregame, 8:20 PM faceoff BROADCAST LINK

Previewing tonight’s GNASH games

Games being broadcast by MTSN are in BOLD.

Hendersonville-Beech-Gallatin vs. Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb - 5:10 PM @ Centennial B
Stephen Sullivan takes over as Hendersonville-Beech-Gallatin head coach, after four seasons of Karson Corley being in charge. The Commandos had to say goodbye to their leading scorer from last season, Connor Smith, as well as their fourth- and fifth-leading scorers, Cole Ullrich and Gavin Meador, plus physical presence Ryan Stehno and role player Ben Landsberg. The good news is their second- and third-leading scorers, Merrick Mott and Colin Smith, respectively, are back for another year. Expect the likes of Justin Schaefer, Gideon Drobnick, and Patrick Sullivan to be asked to step up. Even better news is the offseason pickup of Carter Morrison; the big defenseman has transferred from Pope to Gallatin, giving the Commandos a physical presence that might help them going forward. Goaltenders Tree Garrison and Jackson Brodrick are back for another year, joined by third-stringer Justin Smith. This is still a pretty young Hendersonville team, though, and I don’t expect them to make the midseason jump to Tier 1 this time around, but next year, things could be different. After tonight, Hendersonville will not play again until two weeks from tonight, October 9, against the Outlaws.

Tim McAllister returns to another season of manning the Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb bench, and he should be excited about his team this season. Sure, they lost leading scorer Seth Hagan, and fourth-leading scorer Jack Edwards, along with top defenseman Russell Jankowski, but second- and third-leading scorers Ben Sonkin and Justin Nozko, along with fifth-leading scorer Trex Hooper are back to lead the offense, along with key defensemen Henry Cravens, Hudson Honeybone (the best player name in GNASH), and Cam Fowler. Goalie Brooks Stephenson took the diploma walk, but he was the backup to Reuben Allen, and Allen not need fret, as Nolensville have brought along two new tenders: Bingston Soundara and Brock Scribner. In a rare prep school-to-prep school transfer, the team has also picked up Lucas Tarquine from Montgomery Bell. Ensworth should definitely be in the fight to move up to Tier 1 at midseason. The Ice Tigers will next play Station Camp-Liberty Creek on Wednesday night, then Independence-Ravenwood 2 on October 4.

I’m leaning towards Ensworth in this one.

Father Ryan vs. Ravenwood - 5:15 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp (formerly Rink 1)
Kyle Dora takes charge of the Irish bench, as Steven Henry steps back into a reduced role within the program. The Irish were the surprise team of February’s Predators Cup, ending up a goal away from the Losers’ Bracket Final despite being the 7 seed. They get back leading scorer Austin Hester and third-leading scorer Colton Edwards for one more go-around, having to part ways with second-leading scorer JT Schmidt, fourth- and fifth-leading scorers Ethan Webb and Joe Mugnano, top defensemen Alton Wirth and Ryan Whalen, headliner Katie Cummings, as well as Hayden McCoy and Sam Horsley. Goaltender Mason Chandler also graduated, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, if Luke Anderson - who certainly would’ve taken over the crease for his final season - hadn’t moved to Brooklyn, New York to play for the Brooklyn Aviators of the USPHL’s Premier division. So, the Irish have had to take the stunning step of picking not one, but two goalies from the pool: Riley Barnes and Zach Fonnesbeck, both of whom come from the Tennessee Outlaws. I’m surprised they took this step, rather than promoting someone from their JV team, or even the middle school team (as long as they’re an 8th grader, of course). Father Ryan will need the likes of Colin Sullivan and Jacob Boron to climb the scoring latter if they are to contend this season. The Irish’s next game will be against rivals Pope Prep-MLK-GCA on Wednesday.

Ravenwood begin the defenses of their Predators and GNASH Cups having had to replace nine departing seniors. Those seniors were: second-leading scorer Gavin Hussey, third-leading scorer and Predators Cup Final hero Zach Egli, fifth-leading scorer Owen Gilroy, sixth-leading scorer Luke Powell, Sutton Kornblum, Luke Schenkel, Koen Landkammer, and both goaltenders, Ryan Farrell and Luke Howaniec. Usually, losing that many seniors is a sign that the next year will be a down one, especially when all of your goalies are leaving, too. But Ravenwood don’t seem like a normal team. First, their tryouts brought a turnout that forced them to send those that didn’t make the cut to co-op with Independence (winning makes you very attractive). Secondly, they managed to replace both goaltenders. Senior Brady Miller and freshman Colin Gower will skate in the blue paint for the Raptors. But even better news is the fact that Cooper Hill, who wasn’t allowed to play for the Raptors last year by the Jr. Preds, is back for his junior year. It was Hill who practically carried the team to the Preds Cup title in 2022 as a freshman, forming a frightening, almost veteran-like, scoring tandem with fellow freshman Liam Powell, who, by the way, is also back (and was the Raptors’ leading scorer last year). That’s why, despite Ravenwood having a lot of freshmen this year, I think they’ll be OK. Hill and Powell had the makings of leaders as freshmen, and I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t have those qualities now. Will Ravenwood three-peat? I don’t know. They’re going to need a LOT of kids to step up. But I know that with leadership like the kind displayed Hill and Powell in the past, they certainly won’t be dropping to Tier 2 midseason, because everyone will be determined to not let that happen. Mike Driscoll returns for his second season as head coach. After having a very kind schedule last season, where they played just one game a week for 99% of it, the Raptors will be quite busy these next two weeks, playing rivals Brentwood in Antioch on Wednesday, then Franklin next Monday, before a Predators Cup Final rematch with Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill on October 4.

I’m going with Ravenwood in this matchup.

USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA-Goodpasture vs. Station Camp-Liberty Creek - 6:40 PM @ Centennial B
Last year’s Hine Cup runners-up begin their tenure as a supplemental team, having to be categorized as such because none of the five schools involved could come up with at least eight players in order fall under GNASH’s co-op rules. Leading scorer Ryan Barrett returns for his final season, but the team has had a lot of turnover outside of that. For starters, nine players graduated. Benton Laird, who shared the honor of being the team’s third-leading scorer, was one of them. So was Eddie Crane, who had been with the team since he was an 8th grader, when it was USN-DCA-MLK. Top goaltender Jordin Palmeri, who had also been on the team as an 8th grader in its USN-DCA-MLK days, graduated, as well. The rest of the graduates were Abi Wagner, Stephen Cartiglia, Raman Advani, Drake Dixon, Drake Denning, and Wyatt Saponari. But that’s not all. Two of the team’s younger players also left during the offseason. Second-leading scorer Aidan Ozgener, only an 8th grader last year, moved to Massachusetts. Freshman Hoyt Sorensen, who scored the opening goal in the Hine Cup Final If Necessary Game before Centennial won 3-1, and shared the honor of being third-leading scorer with Benton Laird, moved to Colorado to play for the Thunderbirds. USN have gone from a very experienced team to a very young one. Besides Barrett, Ben Schwarz returns to be the new #1 netminder, but his backup - Mattilda Cox - was picked in the goalie pool draft, taken from the Outlaws. Nick Venable and Mitchell Proffitt also return for their senior seasons, as does freshman-turned-sophomore Brody Wales. They also pick up ex-Brentwood player Barrett Teasdale, who didn’t play in GNASH last season. Of the six teams that played the entirety of their regular season games in Tier 2, USN had the best record at 9-5, and missed out on a place in the midseason promotion/relegation round robin by a single point. I don’t think they’ll be in the hunt for promotion this time. They’re just too young. Ethan Burau returns as head coach. USN will next play twice in Week 2, taking on Independence-Ravenwood 2 next Monday, and then the Hine Cup Final rematch with Centennial on October 4.

Station Camp-Liberty Creek begin to try and shake off the winless season of last year tonight. I don’t think they’ll have much trouble. They bring back pretty much the entirety of last year’s roster, save their two graduates: leading scorer Teagan Bartz, and role player Aidan Daniel. Everyone else is back. Among them the other top five leading scorers (listed in order): Joseph Siciliano, Mark White, Mason Campbell, and Connor Jenne. Both goaltenders, Keaton Howard and Mac Miles, are back, and they’ve been joined in the crease by newcomer Carter Gilleece. A lot of these players also played on the program’s JV team that walloped Franklin in the JV league championship game 5-0. The varsity team almost came back on Summit-Page in the Hine Cup elimination round, so, I think they learned how to win by the end of the season (even though they lost). Joe Siciliano is once again the head coach. Station Camp will next play Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb on Wednesday.

I’m picking Station Camp to get off the winless streak.

Independence-Ravenwood 2 vs. Tennessee Outlaws - 6:45 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
Independence were the surprise team of the 2022-23 season for the wrong reasons. A team with 10 seniors, many of whom were on the roster that won the Hine Cup in 2021, only won two games all season, one in each half of the regular season, and one in each tier. It was especially stunning after Jack Beringer played so well against MBA in the team’s second game of the entire season on October 3. Sure, it was a 4-1 loss anchored by a Lee Guy hat trick, but if Beringer hadn’t played so well, it would’ve been a lot worse. Only third-leading scorer Landric Mayeski is returning; the rest of the top five scorers are all gone. Leading scorer and 2021 Hine Cup Final hero Camden Rummo, second-leading scorer Wyatt Lutkins, and fourth-leading scorer Ben Howard all graduated, while fifth-leading scorer Rhett Gordon has transferred to Centennial for his farewell season. Beringer also graduated, as did Dylan Rizzardi, Ryder McDonald, Jacob Giblin, Braden Szczepaniak, Jacob Hill, and Evan McAlister. According to the roster on the GNASH website, the Eagles only have 17 players this season, and three of those are Ravenwood players being given a chance to develop before eventually getting spots on the Raptors’ varsity team. Safe to say, this looks like a rebuilding year for Indy, because they are very young. Scott Phillips takes over as head coach from Guy Brooks, who headed up the Hine Cup-winning side from 2021. Indy’s next game will be against USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA-Goodpasture next Monday.

The Outlaws also have a new bench boss, assistant Chris Deming getting the promotion to head coach after Matt Swinea moved to Colorado Springs during the summer. Like their opponents for this evening, the Outlaws also graduated 10 players in May, but didn’t lose as much scoring talent as Indy did. Leading scorer Caleb Kuehn graduated, along with the top two goaltenders, #1 crease keeper Brayden Cyphers and Daniel Rodrigue, and top defensemen Aydin Suss and Connor Ivey. Those five are the holes that one could say aren’t easy to fill. The other seniors were Mason Anderson, Benicio Ricaud, Mack Brothers, Gage Eastland, and Wyatt Waelty. However, the Outlaws get back second-leading scorer Jacob Schenk for his last season, and third-leading scorer Josh Kuehn, just a sophomore, has improved mightily. Justin Iannuccilli should move into the #1 goaltending spot, having been the #3 guy for last season. Also returning are AJ Molloy, the awesomely-named Bob Cobb, and Hayden Hall, just to name a few. There are nine newcomers to this Outlaws roster, so, there almost a 50-50 balance of old faces and new ones. I think the Outlaws will be in the mix for midseason promotion to Tier 1.

I’m picking the Outlaws to win this game.

Pope Prep-MLK-GCA vs. Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill - 7:40 PM @ Centennial A
For a team that only graduated one player (Brendan Koreiba), Pope have had to fill a lot of holes this offseason. Isaac Rice, their leading scorer, moved to Connecticut and enrolled in Pomfret School. Third-leading scorer Cash Branyan moved to Colorado to play for the Thunderbirds. Carter Morrison, as previously mentioned, transferred to Gallatin, and now plays for the Commandos. He was the fifth-leading scorer. Alex Williams transferred along with Morrison, and plays with Hendersonville now, too. Patrick McCarthy now plays for Station Camp-Liberty Creek, and Marshall McMurtry now goes to Liberty Creek (though, it appears that he won’t be playing hockey). Backup goaltender Rowan Cass, who probably realized that he will be the #2 as long as Anthony Pellegrino is around, is concentrating solely on lacrosse this season. Not a bad thing, considering lacrosse will be a TSSAA sport next year. Many of those departures aren’t anything to panic about; McMurtry, McCarthy, and Williams were freshmen, and of the three, only McMurtry registered a point. And besides, it’s not like they lost all of their scoring talent; second-leading scorer Jacob Sullivan is returning, as is fourth-leading scorer Erik Kihlberg. The likes of Clay Roach, Nick Hollis, Nick Pellegrino, and Jack Davis will get the opportunity to move up the scoring latter, and goaltender Anthony Pellegrino, who played in 12 regular season games last season as a freshman, is back in the blue paint. Pope however, did have to go to the goalie pool to replace Rowan Cass, picking Jacob Benoit from the Outlaws. So sure, Pope lost a lot of talent, but they kept a lot, too, so, they’ll be fine. Justin Clark returns for his seventh season in charge, which, I think, makes him the second-longest tenured of all current GNASH head coaches. Pope have a busy start to the season, next playing Father Ryan on Wednesday, Montgomery Bell next Monday, and then Franklin on October 4.

Mt. Juliet and Wilson Central are together again for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Ray Balz has stepped down as head coach, being replaced by Alex Walker. Walker is the fifth different head coach the program has had in the last five seasons. The Preds Cup runners-up graduated six players in May: leading scorer Braylen Cox, fourth-leading scorer Wes Ray, fifth-leading scorer Kyle Alsaker, plus Blake Bristow, Easton Krenzke, and star goaltender and Preds Cup Final MVP Robbie Simonik. They’re bringing back a lot of talent, though, among them, second-leading scorer Jordan Antar, third-leading scorer (and top defenseman) Ryan Woods, plus Anthony Giampaolo, Bobby Kamos, and Tyler Dubois, among others. Korbin Vickrey returns, and will probably become the new #1 netminder. Some of the younger players aren’t returning, the most notable being Jackson Blevins, Cullen McDermott, and Neyland Head. This is still a pretty talented team, though, and I suspect they’ll be in the hunt again. Mt. Juliet will next play Franklin on Wednesday.

This will be a close game. I’m picking Pope.

Centennial vs. Summit-Page - 8:10 PM @ Centennial B
The Cougars begin what they hope is not a defense of the Henry Hine Cup, but the journey back to the Predators Cup. Leading scorer Jack Finn, along with top defenseman Dylan Brewton were among the departing seniors from last year’s squad (the other three being fifth-leading scorer Brady Diamond, Will Lassiter, and Adam Horner). There’s nothing to panic about offense-wise; it’s in pretty good hands, with second-leading scorer and Hine Cup Final MVP Aiden Knecht returning for his farewell season, plus third-leading scorer Calvin Zacharias, as well as other sophomores-turned-juniors Brendan Mitchell, Alex Aziminia, and Owen Boyer coming back. As previously mentioned, they picked up Rhett Gordon from Independence, giving them some size. Unfortunately, the Cougars suffered a blow when star goaltender Andrew Stratton departed Tennessee altogether, moving to Indianapolis to join the Indy Jr. Fuel’s U16 AAA team. They managed to find a replacement through tryouts in freshman David Busby, but have once again had to dip into the goalie pool to find a second netminder, picking up senior Kade Henderson from Independence-Ravenwood 2. Still, Centennial should be in the mix for midseason promotion to Tier 1. Connor McKenzie returns for his second season behind the bench. The Cougars’ next game will be rematch of the Hine Cup Final against USN-BA-Nashville Christian-FRA on October 4.

Summit-Page had a lot of freshmen (11, to be exact) and seniors (eight) last season. Fortunately for them, their top two scorers (James Gilmartin and Zach Ellis, in that order), were underclassmen and are returning to the team this year. Third-leading scorer (and 2022 Hine Cup Final OT hero) Mason Breedlove and fourth-leading scorer Jackson Crawford were among the eight seniors, along with the likes of Jacob Wagner, Evan Duffy, Mason McKinnon, and Caden Cross (Jakob Placentia and Nathan White are the other two 2022-23 seniors). The Spartans are a pretty young team this season, with only four seniors (Gilmartin, plus Daniel Lawrence, Cam White, and Gavin Smith), a handful of juniors, and a ton of sophomores. The goaltending tandem of Brady Tessier and Seth Wagner are also back on the ice for the Spartans this season. I was pretty impressed with both of them. Summit-Page should also be in the hunt for a midseason switch to Tier 1. Greg Sauers returns for another season as bench boss. After tonight, the Spartans won’t play again until October 16 against USN.

I’ll pick Summit-Page to take this one.

Brentwood vs. Franklin - 8:20 PM @ Bellevue-Crisp
Chris Orem - GNASH’s longest-tenured head coach - returns for his 13th season behind the Bruins bench, after a season where the Bruins managed to get to the Predators Cup Losers’ Bracket Final after losing their opening round game to Pope. The Bruins saw five of their Top 6 scorers (top scorer Stevie Lipa, second-leading scorer Larsen Smidt, and fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-leading scorers Luc Oelhafen, Dominick Kamssu, and Kyle Barbarite, respectively) finish their high school journey, as well as goalie Georgi Khachaturyan. In total, ten Bruins put on the cap and gown. Third-leading scorer Aidan Pustizzi is back for his swansong season, and he’ll be expected to lead the offense, along with fellow senior Ty Essenmacher (it feels like he could finally break out this season), and junior Jack Schultz. I could see senior Owen Seeley being the lead defenseman. Payne Fielder should be the #1 netminder. Is this the year that the Bruins reclaim their place atop GNASH? I don’t know. But in all the years I’ve covered this league, Brentwood have never had a bad season. If they weren’t the main character, they were, at worst, a major supporting cast member, they’ve never faded into the background and disappeared. This is because of coaching; Orem, plus Mark Layne and Alec Tucker, are capable of getting the best out of all of their players, even if the players’ collective best doesn’t equate to being the best team. Brentwood will next play Ravenwood in Antioch on Wednesday, then clash with Montgomery Bell seven days later.

Franklin had only three seniors to send off last year. One of them was top scorer Matt Yurjevich, while the other two were the last two Hume-Fogg players on the team, Roman Chernitskiy, and Preston Kimbrough (these three also represented the final remnants of the 2020 Hine Cup-winning squad). Chernitskiy and Kimbrough didn’t register any points, so, their absences will be easy to adapt to. So should Yurjevich’s. Sure, he’s gone, but everyone immediately behind him - among them, Brandon Mills, Maclaine Butters, Gavin Akers, and Michael Mannion - are sure to step up to take his place in leading the offense. Even better, they managed to find goalies! After using two lottery goalies last season, the Admirals finally have two to call their own. One of them actually played one game in net last year: Chad Janson. He gets the call-up from Franklin’s JV team. The other is freshman Grayson Butters, Maclaine’s brother. I know that Todd Grosse is happy to have his own netminders this time around. I’m hearing some good things about this particular Franklin team. I hope they can live up to their potential. It would be great for the league to have another team in the mix for the two big prizes (GNASH and Predators Cups). Franklin are also kicking off a stretch where they’ll play four games over two weeks: Mt. Juliet on Wednesday, Ravenwood next Monday, and then Pope two nights later.

I’m picking Brentwood in a close one.

Wednesday’s GNASH schedule

(MTSN broadcast games highlighted in BOLD)
Pope Prep-MLK-GCA vs. Father Ryan - 7:10 PM @ Centennial A
Montgomery Bell vs. Rutherford Rampage - 7:30 PM @ Antioch-North
Ravenwood vs. Brentwood - 8:15 PM @ Antioch-South
Franklin vs. Mt. Juliet-Wilson Central-Green Hill - 8:30 PM @ Centennial B
Station Camp-Liberty Creek vs. Ensworth-Nolensville-Lipscomb - 8:40 PM @ Centennial A

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The next newsletter comes out tomorrow, September 26.