Tahoe Grizzlies 10U youth hockey team headed to playoffs, tubing fundraiser Sunday

It was down to the last minutes before the buzzer of a season-ending game between the San Francisco Sabercats and Santa Clara Blackhawks that clinched the local Tahoe Grizzlies 10U youth hockey team one of four playoff spots next month in San Jose.

The Tahoe Grizzles missed an opportunity to guarantee a playoff spot after a loss to the Vacaville Jets in their home game on Saturday. But a win — by no more than 3 points — by the Sabercats over the Blackhawks on Sunday would be the Grizzlies' last, slim chance of retaining their fourth-place ranking among the fourteen league teams. The Grizzlies 10U team gathered around cell phones after their exhibition game on Sunday morning to check on live feeds of the other game 180 miles away in the Bay.

“There was a lot of nervous tension,” says Ha Dang, team manager. “We really needed the Sabercats to win, but if they won by more than 3 points they would overtake our spot. So we were all nervously rooting for both teams at different points of the game and constantly refreshing our phones to update the score. There was a lot of excitement and cheering once the scores updated to ‘final’ and we clinched our spot.”

The playoff birth is even more exciting for the local 10U team since last season they went 0-13-1. A lot of hard work and extra practices were rewarded with the team going undefeated at the Martin Luther King Tournament in the Tahoe Blue Event Center in January and now to an opportunity to win the league championship title.

The 10U team will play in the NORCAL (Northern California Youth Hockey Association) 10UB playoffs at Solar4America at San Jose on March 8-9 and hopefully for a championship on March 10.

Tube Tahoe is hosting a tubing day fundraiser for the Grizzlies 10U team from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 4. All proceeds will go toward the team’s extra costs for playoffs. Tube Tahoe is located at 3021 S Highway 50.