Category: Sports

Pontus Aberg netted his first NHL goal and James Neal extended his scoring streak as the Nashville Predators defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre. The win improves Nashville’s record to 7-6-3 overall and gives them points in seven of their last eight outings.

Goaltender Pekka Rinne returned to the Predators lineup after missing one game with a lower-body injury, stopping all but one of the 31 shots he faced.

After a loss in Toronto that snapped their three-game win streak, Nashville found a way to get back on the right side of the ledger once more, a complete effort from start to finish.

“I thought we were good from start to finish, but especially at the start,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “We needed to come out and make sure we were road ready, and I thought our guys did an excellent job at that.”

In his third NHL game – excluding two playoff contests in 2016 – forward Pontus Aberg found the back of the net for his first career goal in the League.

The 23-year-old had been a healthy scratch for the past two contests after being recalled on Nov. 8. On Thursday night against the Senators, Aberg entered the offensive zone all alone and fired a wrister from the face-off dot past Mike Condon for goal No. 1 of his career.

“I almost got an apple [assist] on that play, so I remember it really well,” goaltender Pekka Rinne quipped. “It’s huge, and a huge goal for us too, the third goal, and it gave us a little bit of leeway in the game. But it’s always a special thing when guys score their first NHL goals, and even now after the game, he was pretty pumped up. It’s a big moment.”

Before spending his last 353 games with Nashville, Preds Captain Mike Fisher spent 675 contests with the Senators. A second-round pick in 1998 by the Sens, the forward said returning to Canada’s capital is always one of the first dates he circles after the NHL schedule is released.

The Predators honored Fisher for logging 1,000 games in the NHL earlier this year in March, and the Sens elected to do the same in his first game back in Ottawa since earning the milestone.

In a pregame ceremony, former Sens Captain Daniel Alfredsson was joined by several current Ottawa players at center ice for a presentation of a painting depicting Fisher’s 1,000 games in the NHL. Former Sens defenseman Chris Phillips also wished the grateful Fisher congrats via a video message on the Canadian Tire Centre video board.

“That was pretty special to have that,” Fisher said. “Just the organization to do that and those guys to do that in front of the fans, it was something I’ll never forget and that meant a lot.”

It was only one game, but the recently named NHL Third Star of the Week was missed during his two-day absence due to a lower-body injury. Pekka Rinne was back in the Predators net for stop No. 2 of the team’s three-game road trip, and frankly, didn’t miss a beat.

“The way he controls the game and makes big saves, he’s so calm back there tonight,” Fisher said of his goaltender. “He was unbelieveable.”

The Predators spent the week prior expressing how they feed of the high-quality play of their No. 1 netminder,and following a season sweep of the Senators, they had the chance to do so again.

With the 30-save win, Rinne improved to 4-0-0 in his last four starts with a .974 save percentage and 0.75 goals-against average, giving up one goal or less in each of them.

“You have to feel comfortable the way we’re playing right now,” Rinne said. “The week we had at home, it was a great week for us, and all around, we just have to feel good about ourselves and the way we’re playing. It’s all about confidence, especially when you play on the road; that’s when you measure your confidence for sure.

Notes:

James Neal’s six-game scoring streak has tied a Nashville franchise record. Filip Forsberg, Patric Hornqvist, Alexander Radulov and J-P Dumont also tallied in six straight with the Predators. It’s also a career-high for Neal, who had already tied his previous record coming into Thursday night.

“Hottest player in the league right now,” Aberg said of Neal. “He’s been doing really good, and the guy can shoot it, so he’s just going to keep doing that.”

The Predators registered a season-high 40 shots on goal on Tuesday against Ottawa.

Defenseman Ryan Ellis has scored three goals in a five-game period for the first time in his career.

The Preds conclude their three-game road trip on Saturday night in St. Louis to face the Blues before returning home on Monday to host Tampa Bay.  Faceoff is at 7 PM and you can hear the broadcast here on Thunder Radio as part of the Nashville Predators Radio Network.

A new season began and an old rivalry resumed as Coffee County hosted Cannon County on Tuesday night at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym to begin the high school basketball season in a TSSAA Hall of Champions contest. The Lady Raiders broke a 14 game losing streak to Cannon County in a 48 to 45 win. The Raiders fought off a 2nd quarter rally to cruise to a 70 to 50 win over the Lions.
It was a tenacious defense from Coffee County that helped the Lady Raiders build a 10 point lead in the 1st half, but it was clutch free throws in the 4th quarter that sealed the big win. Coffee County opened up a 10 point lead early in the 2nd quarter only to see Cannon County battle back to cut the margin to 5 at the half due to a 3 pointer at the buzzer. In 2nd half, the visiting Lionettes chased down Coffee County to lead going into the 4th quarter. From there, it was a nip and tuck battle with the Lady Raiders retaking the lead with 16 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws from Alliyah Williams. Williams and Holli Smithson hit their free throws in the last minute to seal the win.
Coffee County was led in scoring by Abby Morgan who had 11 points. Aerial Williams finished with 10 points and Smithson added 9. Alliyah Williams finished with 8 points including 3 big free throws in the final minute to be named the Crazy Daisies Player of the Game.

The Red Raiders saw a similar hot start as they built a 9 point lead in the 1st quarter, only to see Cannon County open the 2nd quarter on a 9 to 0 run to tie the game with 5:30 left in the half. The Raiders were able to pull away for a 5 point lead at the half before dominating the 2nd half in the 20 point win.
Coffee County was led in scoring by Garrett Eldridge who poured in 29 points to be named the Crazy Daisies Player of the Game. Stephen Sullivan notched 14 points and DeAaron Rozier added 8 points and Grant Sadler chipped in 7 points.
Coffee County will travel to Tullahoma on Friday afternoon for an afternoon doubleheader with Community in their final Hall Of Champions contest for the season. The girls’ game will tip off at 3:30 PM with the boys to follow. Thunder Radio’s next broadcast of Coffee County basketball will be on Monday when the Raiders and Lady Raiders travel to Huntland. The girls’ game will get underway at 6 PM, we begin our live coverage with the Powers Storage Pregame Show at 5:50.

To Download a copy of the broadcasts, go to : http://www.thunder1320.com/downloads/

James van Riemsdyk tallied a hat trick as the Nashville Predators saw their three-game win streak come to an end at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs – by a 6-2 final – on Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre.

Nashville was unable to fully close the gap after the Maple Leafs claimed a two-goal advantage in the first period. Scores from James Neal and Viktor Arvidsson brought the Preds to within a single goal on two separate occasions, but the home team kept their foot on the gas, ultimately prevailing and putting the Predators overall record at 6-6-3.

“I thought our guys had lots of chances to score goals and play the game,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “They had a couple of goals that were seeing-eye goals, where they just turned and fired it and worked its way through legs and bodies and found the back of the net. We took as many attempts, had as many quality chances and it didn’t find its way through… they capitalized on their opportunities.”

Laviolette wanted the Predators to carry momentum from a three-game winning streak onto the road as they began a three-game trip. Nashville had scored the first goal in four of the six contests during their six-game point streak, but found themselves down 2-0 in the first to the Leafs on Thursday.

“We made some good plays, we had some good chances, we had two or three breakaways and some zone time, but just the amount of pucks they threw at our net, they were getting some bounces there and making some good plays,” Preds defenseman Ryan Ellis said. “For the most part, our game was all right, but you have to score to win and they did just that.”

 

James Neal scored for the fifth consecutive game on Tuesday night. The forward equaled his career high for goal-streak length and became the first player during the 2016-17 season to record such a streak.

On the play, Ryan Johansen held off a Leafs defender reaching over his back and fed the puck into the crease, where Neal tapped the puck into the cage. With six goals in five contests and 10 points (7g-3a) in the previous eight games, Neal is simply, in a major groove for the Preds.

“He’s playing well right now, and he’s finding the back of the net,” forward Austin Watson said of Neal. “We need that out of him. He’s a big part of our team, not just from a leadership standpoint, but from offensive production. He’s a guy we need going for us, and he’s taking care of business.”

 

If winger Viktor Arvidsson continues to score at even a fraction of his current pace, he’ll set new career highs in goals, assists and points. Fifteen games into the 2016-17 season, the 23-year-old Swede has five goals and five assists. Last season, Arvidsson recorded his current-best offensive totals with eight goals and eight assists through 59 games.

“Our slogan this year is kind of that dog on a bone mentality, and to me, it should be his face on that picture,” center Ryan Johansen said of Arvidsson. “Every night right now, he’s been bringing it, his speed and his work ethic… I really love the way he’s been playing and he deserves a lot of credit.”

Against the Leafs, Arvidsson followed up a two-assist game on Saturday with a breakaway tally on Frederik Andersen. Colin Wilson’s feed went blue line to blue line where Arvidsson took the feed in alone on Andersen before firing a shot low to the glove side.

“He plays the same way every game – he’s tenacious, relentless in the pursuit of trying to come up with the puck and generate offense,” Laviolette said of Arvidsson.

Goaltender Pekka Rinne did not dress on Tuesday in Toronto and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Marek Mazanec made his second start of the season, making 26 saves.

“We weren’t good enough in front of him,” Ellis said of Mazanec. “He made some big saves at some key times to keep us in it, but we weren’t good enough in front of him, and their team was better.”

The Predators continue their three-game road trip on Thursday in Ottawa against the Senators.  Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast following the First National Bank Hometown Sports Series broadcast of Westwood basketball.

Two boats from the Coffee County Youth Bass Club competed in the “Battle of Smyrna” Tennessee Bass Trail Event on Percy Priest Lake on Saturday. Of the 90 boats competing, the boat of Braeden and Colby Thurmond were the high finishers for Coffee County as they finished in 46th place. The Thurmonds landed 1 fish with weight of 0.8lbs. The boat of Taylor Fletcher and Blake Mangrum also competed but did not land a fish as 41 of the boats in the competition were shut out.
The Coffee County anglers will be back in action on Saturday as they close out the fall season with a club event. That event site will be posted on Friday so for more information about Saturday’s event, or to get more information about the Coffee County Youth Bass Club, visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Coffee-County-Youth-Bass-Club-1227052340639230/
Members of the Bass Club will be guests on the Coffee Coaches Show on Saturday, November 26th to talk about the fall season. Coach Phil Petty will also provide information about the spring season.