Colin Blackwell scored his first NHL goal on Thursday night in Chicago.

And then Pekka Rinne did the same.

The Predators goaltender put an exclamation point on a 5-2 victory over the Blackhawks, as John Hynes collected his first win behind the bench for Nashville. The road victory is win No. 20 on the season for the Preds. Plus, it’s a positive step as the group looks to gain points with a fresh voice.

But more on the game in a moment. There’s a goalie goal to discuss.

After Nick Bonino iced the game by making it 4-2 with an empty-net tally of his own, the puck found its way back into the Nashville zone and onto the stick of RInne. A goaltender who has had aspirations of scoring a goal his entire career, Rinne wasn’t about to pass up a rare chance to take his shot at an empty cage.

He lifted the puck into the atmosphere, and after it looked as though it might curve to the left, fortunes changed and it rolled its way over the line. And then the Preds made a beeline for their goaltender.

“For sure [it’s a dream come true], I’m not going to lie,” Rinne smiled. “I obviously understand it might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I really enjoyed it. It was an awesome feeling seeing the puck go in… But I’m trying to see it and then [Roman Josi] and [Nick] Bonino, I think they were going nuts, and it was pretty cool. I just threw my hands up in the air and tried to try to act as cool as I can.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been a part of a goalie goal,” Blackwell said. “I almost jumped to the top of the building when that happened. That was pretty unreal.”

The entire night wasn’t perfect – and it wasn’t expected to be – but the Predators found a way to get the job done with Hynes implementing his systems for the first time.

“We had a very strong start, and a lot of the things that we worked on, you could see in the game,” Hynes said. “As the game wore on, there were ups and downs, but I think there were more ups than downs, which was better than what we did against Boston [on Tuesday]. So, I’m really happy for the guys. It’s been a tough week for them, they put in some work, they’ve really listened and they had to really battle for this win. It’s certainly a building block to be able to go on.”

Nashville’s start was outstanding, and it took just 3:16 into the contest for Josi to deke through what seemed like every Blackhawks player on the ice before backhanding a shot off of Viktor Arvidsson and in. The assist extended Josi’s point streak to 12-consecutive games, a mark that extends his career-high and franchise record for defensemen.

Just five minutes later, a pair of forwards, who began the season with the Milwaukee Admirals, connected, as Yakov Trenin fed Colin Blackwell in front, and the winger went top shelf on Corey Crawford for his first-career NHL goal.

“Honestly, I kind of blacked out,” Blackwell laughed. “It’s one of those things where just to get that monkey off your back… Playing some games last year and then being up here for a little while now, I’ve had some chances and finally put one in the back of the net. It definitely felt pretty good, so I just kind of let out a little bit of emotion.”

Before the opening period was out, Matt Duchene picked up an extra birthday present for his 1-year-old son, Beau, when he beat Crawford in tight to give the Preds a 3-0 advantage after the first 20 minutes.

“I got the puck for him,” Duchene smiled. “His first game, last year, I actually scored [and got the puck for him]… so I thought I would keep the tradition going. It was pretty nice to get one for him.”

The Blackhawks got on the board in the second when Dominik Kubalik tallied his 14th of the season, and Alex DeBrincat cut the Nashville lead to one early in the third, but Hynes immediately called his timeout to settle his team down.

Chicago continued to push, but the Predators held tight before a pair of empty-netters sent the visitors home happy.

“It was huge,” Rinne said of the win. “It’s still a work in progress… implementing all [Hynes’s] new things to systems and offensively, defensively, specialty teams, everything like that. I thought that we did a really good job tonight.”

There is still plenty of work to be done as Hynes works to improve his new team day by day, but this was an impressive starting point.

“Getting through [Chicago’s push] and finding a way to win the game was good for these guys because there’s a lot of positives from it,” Hynes said. “When you can win and teach, it’s better to have to teach and lose. So, we’ll take the positives of that.”

Notes:

At 37 years and 67 days, Pekka Rinne is the second oldest goaltender in NHL history to score a goal. He is just the 12th goaltender in League history to accomplish the feat.

The Predators became the first franchise in NHL history with two goaltenders to score, with Rinne joining Chris Mason in the record books.

Dante Fabbro (upper-body, day-to-day), Austin Watson and Alexandre Carrier were scratched for the Preds on Thursday.

With two more days in between games, the Predators will return home for a moment before their three-game road trip continues on Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg (at 1 p.m. CT).

The Coffee County CHS wrestling team traveled to Cookeville on Tuesday night for a 4 team match.  The Red Raiders got wins over Livingston Academy and Siegel.  The Red Raiders fell in their match with Cookeville. 

Against Siegel, the Red Raiders got a 48 to 33 win.  The Red Raiders rolled to the dominating win with 5 pinfall wins and 3 forfeit wins.   Coffee County got pinfall wins from Caleb Boothe(138 pounds), Gavin Prater(145), Devin Judge(160), Cardin Stump(285) and Jeremiah Wardell(106).  Grabbing forfeit wins were Justin Ralph(182), Dalton Long(120) and Gabriel Westbrooke(126).

Against Livingston Academy, the Red Raiders got 42 to 18 win.  Coffee County grabbed 6 pinfall wins and a forfeit win in the victory.  Gavin Prater(145) got the forfeit win.  Getting pinfall wins for the Red Raiders were Jeremiah Wardell(106), Dalton Long(120), Hunter Massey(126), Caleb Boothe(138), Devin Judge(160) and Chris Speegle(220). 

Against Cookeville, the Red Raiders fell by a score of 51 to 24.  The Raiders got a pair of decision wins and 2 pinfalls in head to head matches against the Cavaliers.  Dalton Long(120) also captured a forfeit win.  Devin Judge(160) won a 17 to 12 decision and Cardin Stump(285) logged a 13 to 10 decision win for Coffee County.  Chris Speegle(220) got a pinfall win in 16 seconds while Jeremiah Wardell(106) pinned his opponent in 27 seconds. 

The Raiders travel to Murfreesboro for a tri-meet at Blackman on Thursday.  The first match is set to get underway at 6 PM. 

5:30 PM – CHS Swim at Franklin Co
6:00 PM – CHS Basketball(Freshman) HOSTS White County
6:00 PM – CHS Wrestling at Blackman
6:00 PM – CCMS Basketball HOSTS Warren County – 8th Grade Night

The Tennessee Titans (10-7) travel to Baltimore this week to face the AFC North champion Ravens (14-2) in an AFC divisional playoff game. Kickoff at M&T Bank Stadium (capacity 71,008) is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. CST on Saturday, Jan. 11.

The winner will advance to the AFC championship game to play either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Houston Texans, who meet Sunday in Kansas City.

The Titans and Ravens have met on three previous occasions in the postseason, with the Ravens holding a 2-1 advantage. The Ravens won at Nissan Stadium following the 2000 and 2008 seasons, while the Titans won in Baltimore during the 2003 playoffs.

The Titans Radio Network, including Thunder Radio, will carry the game across the Mid-South with the “Voice of the Titans” Mike Keith, analyst Dave McGinnis, sideline reporter Amie Wellsand gameday hosts Rhett Bryan and Jonathan Hutton.

The Titans earned the opportunity to play the Ravens in the divisional round after defeating the AFC East champion Patriots 20-13 last week at New England. Second-year head coach Mike Vrabel led the team to victory in his first career postseason game with the Titans.

Since the NFL went to its current playoff format in 1990, Vrabel’s squad is the eighth team to advance to the divisional round of the postseason after beginning the regular season with two wins or less in its first six regular season games.

In the win, running back Derrick Henry set new franchise single-game postseason records with 182 rushing yards and 204 scrimmage yards. He tallied the most rushing yards in an NFL playoff game since Green Bay’s Ryan Grant ran for 201 yards against Seattle on Jan. 12, 2008. His scrimmage yards total was the league’s highest in the playoffs since Indianapolis wide receiver T.Y. Hilton had 224 yards against Kansas City on Jan. 4, 2014.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill notched a win in his first career postseason game, passing for 72 yards and a touchdown. Since Tannehill took over the starting duties in Week 7 of the regular season, the Titans are 8-3.

Meanwhile, the Titans defense limited the Patriots to 13 points, which tied for the lowest amount by the Patriots in 41 playoff games since 2001 under head coach Bill Belichick. The Titans shut out the Patriots in the second half.

The Ravens had a first-round playoff bye after clinching the AFC North and the AFC’s No. 1 seed with a franchise-best 14-2 record in the regular season. They closed out the season with 12 consecutive victories, setting another team record.

Head coach John Harbaugh has led the Ravens to a playoff berth in eight of his 12 seasons at the helm, including four division titles.

Harbaugh’s 2019 squad ranked first in the NFL in scoring (33.2 points per game), second in total offense (407.6 yards per game), first in rushing offense (206.0) and fourth in total defense (300.6) during the regular season.

Second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson is an NFL MVP candidate after becoming the only quarterback in NFL history to reach 3,000 passing yards (3,127) and 1,000 rushing yards (1,206) in a single season. His 36 passing touchdowns led the NFL, and he reached the end zone seven times on rushing attempts to give him a league-leading 43 combined touchdowns.