Whitehorse bantam A Mustangs rep team coaches take pride in the fact that referees have approached them, post game, to comment on how well behaved their players are on the ice. Twice.
But during the weekend their competition probably had less good things to say.
The bantam A Mustangs played five games over the weekend in Fairbanks, Alaska, going undefeated. In the first four games the Whitehorse squad played the Northern Knights, Fairbanks’ rep team, outscoring them 50-1 over the series.
Surprisingly, the opener started off close, with the Mustangs taking a modest 2-0 lead by the midway point, before clobbering the Knights 12-0.
“We hit them and they sort of fizzled out,” said Mustangs coach Jay Glass. “The four games against them our guys played well technically.
“The scoring on the weekend was quite spread out,” added Glass. “It’s unfortunate that the competition wasn’t stronger for the first games, but still our guys played really well.
“They’re a strong team; it’s not that that bantam team was a horrible team. This is just one year where we’re a little bit stronger.”
To wrap-up the weekend road trip, the Mustangs played a much tighter game on Sunday against Fairbanks’ Arctic Lions, a private hockey club.
With a goal by Tyrell Hope, the Mustangs clung onto a 1-0 lead until Kyle Lowes scored the insurance goal. Jared Steinbach then put in an empty netter to end the game 3-0.
“The game against the Arctic Lions was a good one,” said Glass. “Too bad we didn’t get to play them a few more times.
“The guys cycled the puck well, we were taking the man all over the place - we were right in their face.”
While in Fairbanks the team attended a game between the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks and Northern Michigan University Wildcats on Saturday. Headed by captain Derek Klassen, a former Yukoner, the Nanooks won 4-3 in a shootout.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com