Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

CHAMPIONS – Mustangs goalie Ethan Vanderkley readies to make a save while a teammate attempts to clear the puck during the 2014 WMHA International Showdown Tournament bantam final Sunday at the Canada Games Centre.

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

RACKING UP GOALS – Payton Fobe (18), Haiden Kramer (16) and Dylan Cozens (19) celebrate a goal during their 8-1 gold medal victory over Yellowknife in the bantam final Sunday morning.

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

UNDER FIRE – Yellowknife Wolfpack goalie Daniel Enge prepares to make a stop on Whitehorse Mustangs player Jarod McCulloch while Dylan Kindervater (15) is parked out front in bantam action Sunday.

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Photo by Marcel Vander Wier

DOMINATING WIN – Peewee Mustangs centre Kyron Crosby wins a faceoff against a Juneau player Saturday at Takhini Arena. Whitehorse won the round robin game 13-0.

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Photo by Marcel Vander Wier

HUNG OUT TO DRY – Juneau Capitals goalie Dawson Hickok is scored upon during peewee action against Whitehorse Saturday.

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Photo by Marcel Vander Wier

KEEPAWAY – Peewee Mustangs blueliner Kyle Schwantz eludes Juneau's Colter Polley while Jesse Goodman (10) looks on Saturday.

Bantam Mustangs win gold with 8-1 blowout

The Whitehorse Bantam Mustangs put on quite a show in front of the home crowd this weekend.

By Marcel Vander Wier on November 10, 2014

The Whitehorse Bantam Mustangs put on quite a show in front of the home crowd this weekend.

The squad, sponsored by Mic Mac Toyota, went undefeated in five games to win the 2014 WMHA International Showdown Tournament’s bantam division.

The club stamped an exclamation mark on their fine weekend with an 8-1 blowout win Sunday morning in their final matchup against the Yellowknife Wolfpack.

A good crowd took in the game at the Canada Games Centre, which actually saw the Wolfpack strike first to go up 1-0 early in the second.

But it was all Mustangs from there. Dylan Cozens scored the first of his two goals just over two minutes later to tie the game, and then the onslaught began.

Joe Stokes, Bryce Anderson, Isaac Williamson, Niall Lawrie, Johnny Elias and Dylan Kindervater also found the back of the net as the Mustangs galloped away.

Starting goalie Ethan Vanderkley secured the win in net for Whitehorse.

Head coach Martin Lawrie said he was excited to see contributions from all lines in Sunday’s final.

“We’re starting to see that depth with the team,” he told the Star.

“We won every third period we played here. A couple games were pretty good hockey games up until the third period, when we took over.

“It points to some depth. I think teams have trouble playing 60 minutes against us. We wear them down.”

Lawrie said he hopes to take his Tier 3 squad to Vancouver Island next month to test their mettle against some Tier 1 teams.

“I think this weekend was the last of our Tier 3 hockey until we hit provincials,” he said.

The Mustangs beat Wasilla’s Matsu Eagles 9-2 to start their weekend Friday, before downing the Wolfpack by the same score that night.

On Saturday, they shut out the Juneau Capitals 5-0, before again besting Matsu 7-4 in a playoff to advance to Sunday’s final.

Matsu went to beat their Alaskan rivals from Juneau 8-3 to win bronze.

Meanwhile, in the peewee division, the Mustangs finished their weekend on a strong note with a 5-0 win over Matsu to win bronze.

Saul Gale led the way with two goals, while goalie Quinn Howard recorded the shutout.

Kyron Crosby, Ashton Underhill and Errol Ekholm also had goals in Sunday morning’s third-place game at Takhini Arena.

Yellowknife’s powerhouse Wolfpack team defeated the Fort Nelson Bluebell 10-0 to win the peewee final.

“Our expectation was to do better,” head coach Kirk Gale admitted today. “We wanted to play Yellowknife in the one-two game. ... We didn’t play as well as we should have or could have in the game against Fort Nelson, which in essence came back to haunt us.”

The young Mustangs beat Matsu 8-4 to open their tournament Friday, but fell to Fort Nelson 4-2 that afternoon.

On Saturday, they pummelled Juneau 13-0 before losing to Yellowknife 6-3 in what would be the toughest competition the Wolfpack would face over the weekend.

Hosting teams from British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Alaska was special for the Mustangs organization, Gale said.

Comments (1)

Up 4 Down 0

danny kassi on Nov 12, 2014 at 7:09 pm

Way to go mustangs. Way to go Johnny Elias.

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