Practice like you play.

The Whitehorse Bantam Mustangs took this approach to training Thursday night at Takhini Arena after going undefeated in a bantam A tournament held in Wetaskiwin, Alta., last weekend.

But no performance is perfect.

The club, now named the Dave's Cleaning Crew Bantam Mustangs, worked on playing the puck deep on offense and getting the puck out on defense.

"Sometimes we forget to headman the puck, or get the puck in deep; we try to carry

it in,” head coach Kirk Gale said after practice. "We need to eliminate the turnovers on our blue line and their blue line. We don't mind kids making mistakes, mistakes are going to happen, we're just trying to eliminate the mistakes, the turnovers on both blue lines.”

The Mustangs opened the tournament with a 2-1 win over a bantam A club from Lacombe, Alta.

"It was a big game from the standpoint of giving our guys a little bit of urgency, and to get that game – luckily a win – under our belt,” Gale said.

"They had no shining stars, but they were a pretty well-rounded team. We just kept skating. The key to our team is to keep skating, keep the legs moving, headman the puck, so we're trying to instill those skills into the kids.”

Then the Whitehorse team settled down, winning two games – both by 9-1 scorelines – against teams from Edmonton's north zone and Peace River.

The finals pitted the Mustangs against the Rocky Rangers.

Gale said the Mustangs took some 20 penalties – six in a row.

Needless to say, the club's penalty kill stepped up to alleviate the damage while down a man.

Gale said that while his team's penalty killing bailed them out, his team clearly needs to take fewer penalties.

First-year defenseman Alex Hanson agreed.

"I think we could work on discipline, not get caught running around when there's a bad bounce,” Hanson said. "Sometimes we get caught running around and we wind up out of position, so just relaxing and staying compact as a team.”

Second-year centre Riley Pettitt said that was one of the Mustangs' weaknesses throughout the tournament.

"We played really good as a team, but our discipline we need to work on a bit, just taking penalties,” Pettitt said.

The tournament marked the Mustangs first trip of the season outside the Yukon, and was as much about team bonding as Ws.

Mission accomplished, second-year centre Brendan Matheson said.

The team worked hard, he added.

"It was good to come out and win some games to get our confidence up,” Matheson said.

"It's pretty good for us. Instead of always playing the older guys, to get out there and play kids our own age.”

The skill-level of the teams at the tournament was up and down, which the 9-1 scorelines might indicate.

But the Mustangs approached weak and strong teams alike with the same mentality, Matheson said.

"We just stayed focused, and after we got the lead, we stuck to the basics: dump and chase, headman the puck, move it around more,” he said.

Hanson said the best way to improve is to compete against bigger, older players.

"It was a great experience to be able to play against older players and players that were in a lot of cases better than me, but I just worked as hard as I could and I was able to compete,” Hanson said.

"I'm a really nervous guy so I usually expect the worst, but I expected in some cases a little more. In Alberta they have a really big AAA league, so some of these teams are sapped of their best players.”

Pettitt also didn't know what to expect heading to Alberta.

"I didn't really know what the teams were going to be like, but I knew we had a good team and we just needed to work hard,” Pettitt said.

"For the weaker teams, we basically worked on passing, controlling the puck and playing hard as a team.

"It was a bonding experience for everyone too.”

Gale said he wanted his team to play at their own level before stepping up a tier to bantam AA.

The Mustangs will head to Lethbridge, Alta., in January for a shot at the upper tier in January before heading to Smithers, B.C., for provincials in the spring.

"Some of them have never been outside the Yukon or on a plane,” Gale said.

Because it's a Canada Winter Games year, the midget and bantam Mustangs and the Canada Games squad will combine to attend nine total tournaments before the Games in Halifax, N.S.