The Whitehorse Midget Mustangs needed to win at least one of two games yesterday to advance to today's semi-finals in the Midget Tier 3 B.C. Provincial Championships.

They did.

But not before dropping their morning matchup 8-3 against the Langley A3 Eagles.

The Mustangs responded in their evening game with a 6-4 win against hosts the Cranbrook Midget Ice, in what Whitehorse head coach Jim Stephens said was full of questionable officiating.

Two of the Mustangs second-period goals were disallowed while the Ice scored a goal that never crossed the line, according to Stephens.

"One of their goals wasn't in,” he said. "The puck wasn't in the crease, the referee wasn't in position, but he called it a goal, so we really felt we were swimming up stream big time in the game. They actually called two goals back on us in that game in the second.”

These disputable calls were especially frustrating knowing that hometown referees were calling the game, Stephens noted.

"I don't understand how B.C. Amateur can allow that when their team's playing. We were behind the eight-ball 4-3 going into the third and not getting too many calls going our way,” he said, adding that there also seemed to be time-clock malfunctions.

"They weren't stopping the clock, and when we were in the lead, they weren't starting it. That was pretty infuriating. That happened about 10 times during the game.”

Mustang Trevor Hanna opened the game's scoring five minutes into the first.

The Ice's late first-period goal cancelled out the Mustangs second goal early on.

Hanna again sniped for the Mustangs in a turbulent second period which saw the Ice respond with three unanswered goals.

But the Mustangs pulled away in the third with goals from defenseman Adrian Hawkings and Hanna – for the hat trick – and an empty netter from captain Chris Vance.

Stephens called the game a "must win” for both clubs, but said that the Mustangs were fired up early on after their morning loss.

"We told the kids: ‘This is the motivator, the odds are against us,'” he said. "We used it in between the second and third to really say, ‘We're not going to let this happen to us, we're going to come out and we're going to win this game.' The kids came out in that third and just played one of the best third periods I've seen a Whitehorse team play.

"A lot of the kids are banged up a little bit, but they just competed for the full three periods in a pretty tough situation, with some of these questionable calls, the problem with the clock – it was a pretty emotional win for us.”

The Mustangs were undefeated heading into yesterday's games after starting the tournament with a dubious 4-4 tie with Sooke, followed by sure-footed 7-0 win over Dawson Creek and a 4-1 win over 100-Mile House.

Vance leads the team in scoring with six goals in five games.

Goaltender Breyin Wiens recorded the Mustangs only shutout, against Dawson Creek, while fellow goaltender Nigel Sinclair-Eckert put in a strong performance for the club's win yesterday – his birthday, no less.

In the game against Langley, Wiens was pulled at 4-1 for Patrick Soprovich, who got a chance after a lengthy break.

Stephens said none of the goals against Langley was either Wiens' or Soprovich's fault.

"We weren't ready to compete as hard as we needed to compete – the first period the other team just out-worked us and beat us to pucks and outplayed us,” Stephens said.

During the first intermission the coaching staff told the players they need to raise their work ethic and battle level.

The Mustangs competed better in the second period, Stephens said.

"We didn't get any bounces. We had lots of chances, and then in the third they got a couple and the game was out of reach. But I think we benefited from learning that we really need to compete hard every game. We carried that into the Cranbrook game and our guys played hard the whole game.”

The lopsided 8-3 loss is baffling considering the Mustangs took 16 penalty minutes to Langley's 26.

But Stephens attributed the loss to a failure to compete in all departments, not simply the failure of the club's special teams.

Lessoned learned, he added.

"Yesterday was a good lesson for us, to remind us of the competition level required to win,” he said.

"We just have to remind them how hard we had to play yesterday; that's what we got to do today every shift, every player out there has to work hard, play smart, make good plays under pressure.”

Those lessons clearly paid dividends in the second game.

Now the Mustangs hope to carry that momentum into the semis against West Vancouver.

"I think our guys are ready to go today,” Stephens said. "(West Vancouver is) a fast-

skating team, not a physical team, but they move the puck well and they're very quick.

"If we skate hard and play hard, we can play with any team, and we got a couple guys on our team that are pretty physical, like Chris Vance, he's made some real big hits during the tournament, and those are real momentum changes for a hockey team.”