Moses Lake Hockey Association U10, U12 teams playing in state tournament in Tri-Cities

 MOSES LAKE — They’re not just born into the NHL, although some might beg to differ. They come from somewhere and pee wee hockey players from the Moses Lake Hockey Association are hoping to start their journey well at the Washington state hockey tournament this weekend in Pasco and Kennewick.

The under-10 will go into the tournament this weekend at the TRAC Center in Pasco as the No. 1 ranked team in the state. All games will be at TRAC, except the first game Friday at Toyota Center in Kennewick.

The U10 championship is at 2:35 p.m. on Sunday.

The Moses Lake under-12 team is the No. 3-ranked team in its class. It will also play two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday with hopes of making the championship match on Monday.

“The U10s are a traveling team that’s played all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada,” said Moses Lake Hockey Association Ty Howard. “They won the Griz Cup in Montana and finished second in the Greater Seattle tournament, which is a prelude to the state tournament. They lost to Portland, which won’t be there this weekend.”

The U10 team plays at 9:30 a.m. on Friday and again at 2:45 p.m. They play at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and the 8 p.m. match Saturday night.

The U12s have played an extremely difficult schedule and go in ranked No. 3 in the state.

“Spokane is a really loaded team, but Moses Lake goes in as the No. 3 team and has beaten that Spokane team,” Howard said. “They won at Salt Lake City where they beat Team Wyoming, a team from Colorado and another team from Texas. So they have had some success, but they really have played tough, tough teams to get there.”

The Coyote U12s open the state tournament at 10 a.m. and play again at 8:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. The U12 championship match is at 3:45 p.m. on Monday.

“The U12s could win the tournament if they really push it,” Howard said. “Their record really doesn’t indicate it, but they have really put themselves out there this season.

“Both of these teams are putting Moses Lake on the map and we couldn’t be prouder.”

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com