The Westwood Lady Rocket basketball team celebrated one of the most successful seasons ever on Thursday night with their annual awards banquet. Honored with individual awards were: Leonor Moreno – Joel Vinson Award. Princess Penaloza – MVP. Kailee Rossman – Leadership Award. Allie Sullivan – Defensive Award. Bryleigh Gray – Heart and Hustle Award. Remi Benjamin – Rebounding Award.

After completing the 2019-2020 season unbeaten, the Westwood Lady Rocket basketball team will be featured on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to talk about their conference championship.  The Lady Rockets finished the year with a 17 and 0 record which included 3 wins in the Morrison Preseason Tournament, 12 straight conference wins and a pair of wins in the postseason conference tournament.  The Lady Rockets are coached by Anglea Houck and Tanessa Buchanan. 

Also featured on Saturday’s Coach Show will be Coffee County CHS basketball coach Micah Williams and Coffee County CHS Track coach Nathan Wanuch.  The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast each Saturday morning from 10 to 11 AM from the showroom of Al White Ford/Lincoln.  The Coffee Coaches Show, in its 6^th year, is heard exclusively on Thunder Radio.

Super Bowl Sunday has become a traditional holiday in America during its 54 year history.  Thunder Radio will continue its very own tradition by bringing you Westwood 1’s coverage of Super Bowl 54 from Miami.  Super Bowl 54 features a match up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.  Kickoff is set for 5:30 PM from the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

Live coverage will begin at 1 PM here on Thunder Radio with Westwood 1’s Super Bowl Preview Show.  Pregame coverage continues with the Super Bowl Insider show at 2 PM followed by Super Sunday at 3 PM.  Westwood 1’s Pregame Show begins at 4 PM from Miami as Kevin Harland and Kurt Warner will bring you the call of the game.  Sideline reporters will be Laura Okmin and Tony Boselli to the broadcast which can be heard at 107.9 FM, 106.7 FM and AM 1320.  Due to NFL regulations, Thunder Radio is unable to carry the broadcast on our stream or the Manchester Go app.

The drama persisted up until the final play of the game, as the Nashville Predators claimed two points in New Jersey with a 6-5 shootout win on Thursday night.

Nashville tied the score on three separate occasions across the final half of regulation, forced overtime and prevailed in the shootout behind goals from Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene. The comeback victory gives the Preds two wins in a back-to-back set and sees them sitting two points out of a Wild Card spot, with two games in hand.

“We’re just finding a way right now,” Duchene said. “There’s still some stuff we need to clean up… but [goaltender Pekka Rinne] was great when we needed him, and it’s just a team effort. We don’t want to give up five goals, but the fact that we’re scoring five is great. We need more of that, and these are two huge wins.”

“It’s a big win,” Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. “We came into the road trip, we won back-to-back games, and this was a great game where you’re playing against a rested team. That was a big step for our team to be able to come from behind and find a way to win.”

Mattias Ekholm waited only 42 seconds into Thursday’s contest to give the Preds a 1-0 lead, when his point shot deflected off a New Jersey defender and past Mackenzie Blackwood. Four minutes later, Devils forward Pavel Zacha got his first of the night, while shorthanded, to even the score. The Predators were able to emerge from the opening period with a 2-1 lead after Filip Forsberg tallied his team-leading 17th of the season at the 8:17 mark.

In the second, Nick Bonino potted his 15th, but the Devils added three of their own – courtesy of Zacha, Nikita Gusev and Jesper Bratt – to give the home team a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes.

“We came in, and we were ready to play in the first, but the second period [wasn’t good],” Forsberg said. “But then we battled back again in the same situation like last night. There’s a lot of fight in this team, and we’ve shown that the last two games.”

The visitors were in the exact spot they were in 24 hours prior: down 4-3 and starting the third period. Another goal in the opening minute of a period – this time from Duchene – brought Nashville back even. But when the Devils retook a one-goal lead at 6:37, the Predators were forced to play catchup once again.

Forsberg gave the Preds one more answer with their third power-play goal in the last four games, when his iconic wrister worked again, beating Blackwood cleanly for a 5-5 game.

“I just like our effort,” Forsberg said. “There’s been times where we’ve been down a couple goals going into the third, and we just quit playing. That’s the biggest thing, just a mentality… and just that belief is back a little bit.”

The duo of Forsberg and Duchene came up clutch one more time in the shootout, as both converted their attempts to seal the road victory. That sets the stage for a pivotal game in Music City on Saturday night. A regulation win over the Vegas Golden Knights will vault the Predators back into playoff positioning for the first time in weeks.

“You’ve got to feel good about these wins, and that’s something we haven’t done this year,” Duchene said. “When we’ve won games, won big games, that’s kind of been like we’re a team that’s expected to win. But you’ve got to ride the momentum and feel good about ourselves… [With these two wins], now we can we can start feeling good about ourselves.”

Not only did the Preds win one for Hynes in his first game back in New Jersey to coach against his former team, but with the victory, general manager David Poile became the winningest GM – regular season and postseason combined – in NHL history with No. 1,507.

Indeed, there is plenty for the Predators to feel good about right now, but they know they need to keep that fire ignited, and they can’t wait for Saturday night in Smashville.

“It’s never going to be perfect this time of year,” Duchene said. “We’re a team that’s fighting for everything right now… and I thought we did a great job sticking with it. Some timely goals, we never got down, and we’re showing great mental strength. What’s great about this is we kind of hit rock bottom, and now we’re coming on the way up. Our best is yet to come. We’re working and we should feel so great about these two wins and bring that enthusiasm, that confidence and that swagger into Saturday.”

Notes:

Preds forward Colton Sissons returned to the Nashville lineup on Thursday night after missing action since December 27 due to a lower-body injury.

Forward Calle Jarnkrok missed Thursday’s game due to illness. Forward Yakov Trenin took his place in the lineup. Colin Blackwell and Matt Irwin were also scratched for the Predators.

With their back-to-back road set now complete, the Preds return to Nashville to host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday evening (at 7 p.m. CT) at Bridgestone Arena.

The Coffee County Middle School Red Raider basketball team opened play in the TMSAA Sectional Tournament on Wednesday afternoon at Stewarts Creek Middle School.  In a game you heard here on Thunder Radio, the Red Raiders matched up against Blackman Middle in a quarterfinal round match.  Coffee County’s season came to a close as they fell 62 to 29 to the red hot shooting Flames team from Blackman.

With the 2 teams tied at 12 midway through the 2^nd quarter, Blackman closed out the half on a 12 to 0 run.  Blackman opened the 2^nd half with 6 straight points to build a 30 to 12 lead before an Ethan Hargrove 3 point play stopped the point streak.  Blackman hit ten 3 point baskets in the game. 

Ethan Hargrove was the leading scorer for Coffee County as he finished with 13 points.  Cooper Reed added 8 points while Jackson Shemwell finished with 4 points.  The Red Raiders will end the season with an overall record of 18 and 6.  Coffee County finished with a 2^nd place finish in the CTC regular season and an Area 6 tournament title. 

The Coffee County CHS wrestling team traveled to Rockvale on Tuesday night for a dual meet with the Rockets.  The Red Raiders got 3 pinfall wins and a win via a technical fall in the match but fell 45 to 23. 

Earning pins for Coffee County were Caleb Boothe(132 pounds), Gavin Prater(145) and Cardin Stump(285).  Hunter Massey(126) earned a technical fall victory as he outscored his opponent 15 to 0.  Chris Speegle(220) dropped a 6 to 4 decision.

The Lady Raider grapplers are back in action on Friday and Saturday at the West Regional Individual Tournament at Nolensville High School.  The Red Raiders will return to action in on February 14^th and 15^th in the region individual tournament.

The Westwood Middle School football team hosted their annual football awards banquet on Tuesday night.  The highlight of the evening is the awarding of the Brian Gregory Memorial Award.   2019 is the 35^th year of the award that was established in 1985 to honor the most outstanding student/athlete on the Rocket football team. 

Brian was a former Westwood, and Manchester Central, football player who died in a tragic farming accident while in high school.  The 2019 recipient selected was Izick Sierra who played fullback and linebacker for the Rockets as well as handling the kicking duties. 

If you’re still working through what happened in Washington between the Predators and Capitals, you’re not alone.

Four lead changes, including a 3-1 advantage for Nashville and a 4-3 lead for Washington in the third period, gave way to a 5-4 triumph for the Predators on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. The back-and-forth victory is Nashville’s eighth-straight win against the Caps overall and their fourth consecutive season sweep.

With the Capitals sitting in first place in the NHL standings and holding a 23-2-3 record when leading after two periods, the dramatic win for Nashville is sure to be cherished even more than most. Still, earning two points to draw within four of the Western Conference’s final playoff spot has to be the most important part of the evening.

“We just stuck to it,” Preds forward Rocco Grimaldi said. “Being up 3-1, and then them coming back, especially with just the way that the goals were going and just crazy bounces, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

“It’s definitely a good confidence boost tonight, and knowing that when we stick together we can go and get the job done,” Johansen said. “It’s definitely a good reminder that when we stick together we can be successful.”

The game’s opening period featured five goals in total, and three of them came from the visitors. After Richard Panik made it 1-0 Washington at 9:28, it was less than a minute later that Preds defenseman Jarred Tinordi fired home his first-career goal on a one-timer from the left point.

Mark Tinordi, Jarred’s father and a Capitals defenseman for a number of seasons, was in attendance to see his son hit the twine for the first time in his career.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Jarred said of his goal. “It was a good pass by [Filip Forsberg]. He kind of left it on a platter for me. I shot it, and I didn’t quite see it go in, but I just saw him coming in with a big hug, so it was nice.”

Less than three minutes later, and in the dying seconds of a Nashville power play, Filip Forsberg went cross crease to Mikael Granlund, and the winger roofed his 10th of the season to give the Preds their first lead of the night. Roughly three minutes after that, Roman Josi found Rocco Grimaldi streaking to the net, and the speedy forward beat Braden Holtby on the backhand to put the Predators, 3-1.

Just 24 seconds after that, however, Nashville netminder Juuse Saros misplayed the puck behind the net right to Alex Ovechkin, and Washington’s captain tallied his 693rd career goal to bring the Caps to within one.

In the second stanza, another Predators’ miscue saw Nick Bonino accidently put the puck into his own net off of Saros, and Tom Wilson scored on the power play before the period was out to give the Capitals a 4-3 advantage heading into the third.

“That could have been a time where we could have been frustrated, like, ‘You got to be kidding me? Here we go again,'” Grimaldi said. “But, I thought we came out for the third period and took it to them for most of that period. I thought it was a good job, good response for our team.”

On most nights, the final ledger almost always reads in Washington’s favor after an opening 40 minutes like that, but the visitors did not forsake their identity. Something they vowed to do after Monday’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Johansen put an exclamation point on a strong night for the Predators’ penalty kill (4-for-5) with a shorthand goal three minutes into the final period. The center rifled a shot past a Capitals’ defender and on the far side of Holtby for the all-important tying marker.

Johansen also collected an assist 12 minutes later – and in the final five minutes of regulation – on Yannick Weber’s first of the season. Yes, that’s two players with their first goals of the season in Game No. 49.

A power play at 16:03 and a few more stops for Saros sealed the victory for Nashville over the remaining seconds, and the Predators poured off their bench to congratulate their goaltender in a game that had a little bit of everything.

“One of the things we talked to the team about before the game was… in every game there’s going to be adversity,” Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. “The goals of this game – one, obviously you want to win it, but the second one is we come out of this game, win or lose, with some identity of pushback and getting through those situations. In this game, we had all kinds of it where it was some odd goals with some tough bounces. I really like the fact that we were able to stay with it and get rewarded for it.”

It remains to be seen what a win like this – on the road, against the League’s top team and with tough bounces all night – could do for the Preds, but it should at least serve as a boost to a team that needs points just about every night the rest of the way.

“That was a gutsy win for us in here,” Tinrodi said. “We started the game the way we wanted to, and then we had some bad breaks in the second period. But the group found a way to do it in the third period, and it took a lot of guts. Hopefully this is the thing that we build off of.”

Notes:

Colton Sissons (Injured Reserve) did not play on Wednesday in Washington, but he is on the trip and could return to the lineup soon.

Tinordi entered the lineup in favor of Matt Irwin on Wednesday night. Yakov Trenin was also scratched for the Preds.

Nashville will finish their back-to-back set on Thursday night (at 6:30 p.m. CT) in New Jersey against the Devils before returning home to host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.