The bantam Whitehorse Mustangs, with passports in hand, headed to Scottsdale, Arizona to compete in the Presidents’ Day Invitational Hockey Tournament last weekend.

For Mustangs captain Chayce Tuton, it was his first hockey tournament outside of Canada.

He said it was a good time playing against teams from south of the border.

Tuton also said that the Americans were strong teams that were difficult to play against.

“A couple of teams, we played Texas and California, had a wide variety of people to choose from,” said Tuton. “Lots of teams had big guys who were fast and shot hard.

“We had to accept what the game was and we played them hard.”

Tuton said competing against strong teams made them better hockey players.

“It absolutely made us tougher,” said Tuton. “We became stronger on the puck. You can see the improvement throughout the year.”

The Mustangs’ first game of the tournament was against the Ice Dogs, a contest they dropped 10-1. Bryn Studney-Amos was the lone goal scorer for the team.

They dropped their next game as well to the CA Bears 9-0. Tuton said it wasn’t until their last two did they start to play better.

“We didn’t play well the first games,” said Tuton. “But, we got more comfortable and played better hockey.”

He said they played better because they became more comfortable with the style of play and they weren’t as nervous.

“Lots of times when you freak out and panic and you’re not calm you make the wrong decision,” said Tuton. “When we were in control we played well.”

In their third game of the tournament, they were pitted against the Jr Ducks - Maxwell/Perkins, who took the game 5-3.

Mustangs got goals from Studney-Amos and Jase Johnstone who picked up two. Tuton and Conner LaBar (two) picked up the helpers.

The Mustangs last game of the tournament against the Texas Tigers - Hesse, was the teams’ strongest showing according to Tuton.

“We were strong and played our roles well,” said Tuton. “We played well on the body and got lots of turnovers and stopped them from coming down. I’m proud of the team.”

The Tigers won the game 7-4. Studney-Amos, Cooper King and Taylor Bierlmeier (two) picked up the goals for the Mustangs. LaBar and Johnstone each had two assists, and

Studney-Amos also picked up a helper.

Although the Mustangs were unable to get into the win column Tuton said there are still plenty of positives to take away.

“We played good all around,” said Tuton. “We laid the body early and set the tone. We were good on the penalty kill and on the power play.

“Our coaches would say you can still get a win even if it doesn’t happen on the scoreboard. We played our best.”

Tuton said he and his teammates enjoyed playing in America and getting an opportunity to do some team bonding together.

“It was a cool opportunity to play teams from big cities down there,” said Tuton. “We did everything together as a team and that will help us.

“No one was ever alone, we were always bonding and having fun.”

There were other perks to playing hockey in sunny Arizona.

“I got a really nice tan,” said Tuton.