The Yukon's Canada Winter Games hockey team is putting on a solid performance in Richmond, B.C., says head coach Jay Glass.

Win, lose or draw, Glass said in a telephone interview Wednesday, he's content with how his boys shaped up for their first four games this week.

He said the club tied its opener 4-4 on Monday against a midget team from California, and followed with a loss later that day to a squad from Chilliwack, B.C. by a score of 6-4.

Both games, Glass said matter-of-factly, should have been won by the Canada Winter Games representatives.

Even the 8-3 score of Tuesday's loss to the Richmond Blues was not reflective of the quality of game played, he insisted.

"It was 3-2 going into the third, and then the wheels sort of fell off,” he said. "It was not an 8-3 game. It was probably a 6-4 game, but definitely we did not deserve that one.

"With that 4-4 game, it should probably have been 7-4 for us based on our scoring chances. We just didn't finish around the net.”

With a 3-2 victory Wednesday morning against Nanaimo in the final game of the round robin, Glass was waiting to see how the rest of the day went to determine who the Yukon would play today at the beginning of the medal round.

Glass said when he left for Richmond on boxing day, what he and his coaching staff wanted most was to provide his team with exposure to seasoned clubs with solid skills. There were no serious aspirations of golden success, but some hope of coming away with at least one win for the soul, he said.

The Canada Winter Games team, after all, is made up of 14- and 15-year-olds, as the new age limit for Games hockey is 15, down from 16 when they here four years ago, he pointed out.

He said most of the midget teams in Richmond are carrying a healthy inventory of 16- and 17-year-olds.

That the Yukon representatives are holding their own – and more – against teams a full age category older bodes well for potential success in Halifax this coming February, he said.

"For us to win a game down here, we are happy,” said Glass. "And we could have won two other ones, so we are quite happy.”

He said to be competitive in Richmond is success.

The veteran coach who played with the 1993 Whitehorse Allen Cup champions said as the Games team heads towards Halifax, it's expectations are realistic.

The Yukon simply can't compete with the numbers coming out of Ontario, or B.C. for that matter, Glass conceded.

He said 38 skaters tried out for the 20 positions to represent the territory; B.C. had 1,000.

That's certainly not to say the Yukon can't compete with the smaller territories and provinces in their pool, said a confident head coach

He said they'll face the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland-Labrador in the opening round robin.

"We want to win at least two games,” said Glass. "We plan to move onto the next round.”