Young Mustangs made the most of their first shot in an Outside tournament last weekend.

The Castle Rock Atom Junior Mustangs went undefeated in Strathmore, Alta., sweeping all three of their games.

"For 90 per cent of the team, it was their first time Outside,” head coach Kirk Gale said, noting that just three players are returning from last year's rep team.

"I wanted it to be a good, positive experience. It was nice to win all three games, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted the kids to get a taste of what it was like to play against kids their own age because we don't get that opportunity here.”

For that reason, the Mustangs entered the A tournament, equivalent to Tier 3 in B.C.

The Whitehorse club opened their campaign with a 3-1 win over Strathmore B. Not a bad margin considering the Mustangs, who were traveling all day, reached the arena with 15 minutes to spare before puck drop. With no chance for first-tourney jitters, the Mustangs outshot Strathmore 20-8.

First-year Mustang Stanley Cooley sniped his club's opening goal off a feed from Jarrod McCulloch.

Second-year forward Isaac Williamson added the game winner, with Wyatt Peterson and Maddie Nicholson picking up the assists. Peterson again found Williamson to widen the final margin.

The Mustangs then matched their first game's score with a 3-1 win over the Red

Deer Phone Experts Chiefs.

Williamson again found the net, assisted by Nicholson and Brett Walchuk. Josh Austin pushed the Mustangs ahead with the game winner following a one-goal third thanks to the help of teammates Oscar Sawicki and Logan Kruse. Kruse then added his second point of the game with an empty-net goal with nine seconds remaining.

After outshooting the Chiefs 26-6, the Mustangs relied more heavily on goaltending duo Cayden Holder and Dawson Smith for game three against Kneehill B, which managed to outshoot the Yukoners 16-12.

But Williamson and Cooley stepped up.

Williamson sniped his club's opening goal, assisted by Nicholson and Wyatt Peterson, before Cooley added a pair of his own, the first assisted by Saul Gale and the second unassisted.

Nicholson and Kruse added goals' four and five for the Mustangs.

Holder's save percentage was 83 after three games and Smith's was 91.

"It was a learning experience for us as coaches, the players and the parents,” Gale said. "The parents were as excited as the kids; that was nice to see.

"Everybody worked hard from the goaltending out. There was some really good saves made by both goaltenders; they got a lot of shots.”

And sharp shooters Cooley and Williamson helped at the other end.

"Stanley's a very powerful skater,” Gale said. "He really loves the game, and he certainly is a driven player going after the puck. Isaac is solid, he has a very good shot and when he gets the chance it doesn't take him too many tries to score goals.”

The Atom Mustangs will head to a Tier 3 tournament in Hope, B.C., in mid-January.

"An A tournament is certainly where we would want to be in Alberta, and Tier 3 and Tier 2 is where we would want to get a tournament in B.C.,” Gale said.

"It's a development team, strictly developmental. Sometimes you go to a Tier 2 tournament and they can blow you out of the water; other times we go there and we'll play real well and challenge them. We're kind of throwing the dice, because we really don't know sometimes what we're getting into.”