Top Tennessee high schools compete for Predators Cup JP II Knights win Predators Cup Ryan Sterrett scored twice and added an assist to lead Pope John Paul II high school to a 5-1 win over the Bearden Ice Dawgs in thePredators Cup championship Saturday afternoon at Nashville Arena. Bearden High, based in Knoxville, opened the scoring with a power-play goal by Chad Miracle with 4:37 left in the first period. Hendersonville's JP II Knights tied the game 1:35 later and scored four more unanswered goals in the second period. Knights goaltender Taylor Holmes stopped 16 of 17 shots he faced, including nine in the second period. Conversely, JP II scored four times on eight shots in the middle period, taking a decisive lead en route to the championship title. The two teams advanced to the final game by winning their semifinal matches Friday night at Southern Ice Arena in Franklin. Bearden downed Mt. Juliet 7-3 in the first game of the night, then JP II defeated Collierville 6-3. Collierville won the third-place game Saturday morning at Southern Ice, defeating Mt. Juliet 4-2. Predators Cup Tournament Recap - Preliminary Round Courtesy of Center Ice Magazine The Predators Cup got off to a rousing start in the east preliminary series in Knoxville March 3 when Bearden defeated JP II 1-0. Jeff Slack stuffed home a juicy rebound just 19 seconds into the contest, but that was all the scoring. Logan Baker made 31 saves for the Ice Dawgs, his highest shot total of the season. In the second morning game, MBA got two goals and one assist from Brooks Jones and a goal and assist apiece from Chris Fike and David Dalton to put away a pesky Houston Mustangs squad 8-4. Houston twice rallied back to get the game to within one goal, but it was not enough. Meanwhile, in Nashville, the Mt. Juliet Bears exploded for four goals in the second and third periods to put away the Catholic/Webb Warriors 9-2. The Bears got hat tricks from Jeong Choe and Justin Bracey, while both Warriors goals were scored by Jacques Lambert. The second morning game in the west preliminary series was a hard-fought 3-1 win by the Collierville Dragons over the Ravenwood Raptors. Cameron Poindexter, A. J. Konrad and Steve Swearingen all scored for the Dragons, while Ravenwood's goal came off the stick of Brennan Smith. In the east afternoon series, JP II blew Houston away 10-2 in a penalty-filled contest. Ryan Chambers netted the two Mustang goals while Dan Adams picked up a hat trick for the Knights. Chris Bourget also had two goals, while Christian McCollum had a goal and three assists and Anthony Golio had four helpers. MBA jumped out to a 2-0 lead against Bearden in the second afternoon game, but several punishing hits left the Big Red reeling, and the Ice Dawgs responded, scoring five of the final six goals. Daane Blocksma led Bearden with two goals. It took less than five minutes for Keong Choe to rack up his second hat trick of the day against the Raptors in the first Nashville afternoon game, powering the Bears to a 7-3 win. Ravenwood narrowed the gap to 3-2, getting the second with just 5.2 seconds remaining in the 1st period before Mt. Juliet pulled away again. The Dragons were all business in putting away the outmatched Warriors 8-0 in the second game. Steve Swearingen picked up four more goals for Collierville, as backup goalie Tripp McCracken cruised to a shutout win. Sunday's early game in Knoxville was likewise a blowout, as Bearden shut out Houston 9-0. Baker again got the shutout for the Ice Dawgs for his second of the tournament. The second morning game was scoreless until the third period, when JP II used three breakaway goals to pull away from an exhausted MBA squad. Balance was the key in the opening Sunday game in Nashville, as Ravenwood bounced Catholic/Webb 8-4. The eight Raptor goals were all scored by different players. Likewise, the Warriors got points from nine different players in their final contest. Since the battle for the first seed in the east was ultimately decided in the first game, perhaps it was fitting that the battle for the first seed in the west preliminary was decided in the last game. Collierville got a goal from Eric Strehle and the game-winner from A.J. Konrad to lock up the top seed in the west. Mt. Juliet picked up one goal from Justin Bracey in the loss. The opening match will pit the Bearden Ice Dawgs (3-0) against the  Mt. Juliet Bears (2-1). Bears goalie Logan Baker saved his best game  of the season for a 1-0 shutout against JP II. He'll need a similar  performance against a slighted Mt. Juliet squad that were missing a  few players for their preliminary loss against Collierville. The rubber match of the evening will square off the Collierville  Dragons (3-0) against the JP II Knights (2-1). Collierville never  trailed against a dangerous Mt. Juliet team and breezed to victory in  their other two games. JP II didn't manage a goal in 31 shots against  Bearden and waited until the third period to put away MBA. JP II will  have to bury the chances they get in this game, because odds are  they'll be few and far between. Collierville will have to stay out of the sin bin in order to skate on to the finals. PRELIMINARY EAST SERIES - KNOXVILLE ICEARIUM DAY DATE TIME HOME SCORE AWAY SCORE Sat. 3-Mar 8:30-9:50am Bearden 1 JP II  0 Sat. 3-Mar 10:00-11:20am Houston  4 MBA 8 Sat. 3-Mar 3:15-4:35pm Houston  2 JP II  10 Sat. 3-Mar 4:45-6:05pm Bearden 5 MBA 3 Sun. 4-Mar 7:45-9:05am Houston  0 Bearden 9 Sun. 4-Mar 9:15-10:35am JP II  4 MBA 1 PRELIMINARY WEST SERIES - SOUTHERN ICE ARENA DAY DATE TIME HOME SCORE AWAY SCORE Sat. 3-Mar 10:10-11:30am Mt. Juliet 9 Catholic/Webb 2 Sat. 3-Mar 11:40am-1:00pm Ravenwood 1 Collierville 3 Sat. 3-Mar 5:10-6:30pm Mt. Juliet 7 Ravenwood 3 Sat. 3-Mar 6:40-8:00pm Collierville 8 Catholic/Webb 0 Sun. 4-Mar 10:10-11:30am Catholic/Webb 4 Ravenwood 8 Sun. 4-Mar 11:40am-1:00pm Collierville 2 Mt. Juliet 1 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES - SOUTHERN ICE ARENA DAY DATE TIME HOME SCORE AWAY SCORE Fri. 16-Mar Semi 1A 7:10-8:30pm East Series #1 Bearden 7 West Series #2 Mt. Juliet 3 Fri. 16-Mar Semi 1B 8:40-10:00pm West Series #1 Collierville 3 East Series #2 JP II 6 Sat. 17-Mar 9:00-10:20am Loser Semi 1A Mt. Juliet 2 Loser Semi 1B Collierville 4 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME - NASHVILLE ARENA DAY DATE TIME HOME SCORE AWAY SCORE Sat. 17-Mar 1:00-3:00pm Winner Semi 1A Bearden 1 Winner Semi 1B JPII 5