Eight games into the senior AA hockey season, the Whitehorse Huskies are playing with some swagger.

The local team beat the visiting Yellowknife Flyers 7-6 and 7-4 over the weekend, improving their record to 8-0 heading into a two-game playoff series in Fort St. John.

“You definitely get a swagger after a while – at least a little bit of one,” assistant captain Clayton Thomas told the Star.

“You start to feel confident. When we started, we had no expectations at all, but what I’m happy about the most is how the guys came together.”

On Friday, the Huskies stormed out to a 4-1 lead on first-period goals by Thomas, Evan Campbell, Jared Tuton and Kane Dawe.

However, the team unravelled in the third, taking eight minor penalties as the Flyers began to chip away at the lead, eventually tying it up 6-6.

Adam Henderson eventually bailed the Huskies out with a late goal – his second of the game – that stood up as the game-winner.

Ryan Gleason also scored for Whitehorse, while Alex Richard (3), Sam Shannon, Kyle Kugler and Kyle Hallett responded for Yellowknife.

“It seems like every team we play comes out real sluggish, probably because of the travel,” said Thomas. “Every Friday, we’ve been up four or five goals ... We just had a hard time staying out of the box.”

Huskies goalie J.J. Gainsforth replaced Friday’s starter Rob Young in between the pipes for Saturday’s contest at Takhini Arena.

Whitehorse was able to win that game by a more comfortable margin of 7-4.

Dawe led the way with two goals, while Robbie Stuckey, Campbell, Gleason, Tyrell Hope and Henderson added singles.

Kugler, Craig Stephen, T.J. Rentmeister and Shannon lit the lamp for Yellowknife Saturday.

The forward trio of Campbell, Henderson and Dawe continued to lead the way for the hometown Huskies.

Campbell collected two goals and five assists, Henderson picked up three goals and four assists, and Dawe logged three goals and three assists in the two-game series.

The Huskies will put their season on the line Feb. 28 and March 1 in Fort St. John, with a berth in the Coy Cup tournament up for grabs.

“We’re losing a couple of our key players,” said Thomas of star forwards Derek Klassen and Rob Warner, who are at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George. “But we’ll be ready.

Fort St. John’s tough. They have a lot of guys right out of junior, but our team’s tough too. We’ve got a big team that can handle it, and we’ve got each other’s backs.”

Thomas, the team’s organizer, said attendance was approximately 200 people (150 paid tickets) for each game, due in part to the Canada Winter Games and an old-timer hockey tournament in Dawson City.

“We’re happy where we are,” he said. “We’re financially stable.”