This year's Whitehorse Midget A Mustangs have hit the ground running.

The Mustangs won their opening two Whitehorse Recreational Hockey League games with a staggering 21 goals for and zero against.

The Mustangs opened their 2011-2012 campaign with an 11-0 route of the Rednex on Oct. 7 followed by a 10-0 game against the Kluane Drillers over the weekend.

When asked if this is a usual start for the Mustangs, head coach Jay Glass laughed:

"No!”

These are promising numbers from a team who had lost third-year players Chris Vance, Lindsay Meikle, Trevor Hanna, Adrian Hawkings and Travis Rivest after winning bronze at the Tier 3 B.C. Provincial Championships in Cranbrook last season.

Glass is hesitant to say this year's Mustangs squad is rebuilding.

"The guys that we lost are good players, and then some of the guys that we've received from bantam are good players and the other guys within our organization are typically a year bigger and a year stronger and a year smarter, so they've improved,” Glass said.

"Everybody has to fill different roles as you move through the program. One year you might be a second- or third-line player and the next year you might be expected to take a higher role and play a little more, maybe wear a C or an A, and that's how it works.”

And it's clearly working.

This year's Mustangs are more evenly split between 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. Last year's team leaned more on the second and third-year players.

"Our team is quick, so we skate well,” Glass said.

Returning players Michael Hare, a two-way centreman, and Tyler Wiens, a right-wing sniper, will be key to the success of this year's squad, Glass said. As will former Bantam Mustangs Riley Pettitt and Wyatt Gale, who have this year made the jump to midget.

And it's paid off for the club.

Pettitt has notced six points (two goals, four assists) in two games, while Gale has

eight (three goals, five assists).

No wonder Glass put the two up-and-comers on a line with Wiens, who had three points in his last game.

"Tyler can burry pucks and Riley Pettitt and Wyatt Gale are really good at getting pucks to him, get him opportunities to score,” Glass said, adding of Pettitt: "He's shown that he's ready to go. He's going to be a real force to play against; he's a quick little centreman with no give up in him. We're going to have a fast team. Our young guys are really quick and our older players are going to work hard.”

Breakout players also include Jamie Tetlichi, who played for the Midget B Mustangs last year, and Liam Webster, who came from the bantam program, Glass said.

"These are kids I haven't had experience with and they're just fabulous. We thought they were going to be bubble players, boarder-line third-line guys for us and they've really shown us a lot. They're both big players, they're both strong.”

Both the Rednex and Kluane Drillers are fairly good teams, Glass added. But it's likely that, with the lack of ice time in the city right now, the men's teams will take longer to settle into the season.

"A lot of the men's teams haven't been out much, so they're probably rusty on their feet. Those guys get better as the season goes on, as they get in shape a little bit more, whereas we've been skating for a while,” Glass explained.

The Canada Games Centre ice surfaces will be re-opened within the next few weeks after a fire closed the centre for the summer. Teams have had to share time on the Takhini Arena.

The first training camp for the Midget Mustangs was held at Takhini on Sept. 8.

The mandatory hard work between then and now has helped the Mustangs' start, Glass said.

"I'm real impressed with their work ethic; everybody's out at practice, everybody's working hard every drill, they're paying attention when we go into the dressing room.”

The first real test for the Mustangs will come in a Tier 3 midget tournament in Abbotsford, B.C., from Nov. 10-11.

"If we're lucky enough to get into the playoffs, the semi-finals, that'll be the first test to see how we can play under pressure,” Glass said.

"The other big test will be in town when we start coming up against the perennial top teams in the rec league, when we start playing the Roadhouse, Air North, Boston Pizza. That'll be a test on a different level for us.”

The Mustangs' coaching staff faces a big test itself.

The same coaching staff will lead the Team Yukon boys to the 2012 Arctic Winter Games, set for Whitehorse from March 4-10.

Because of the numbers, Glass explained, there will be a lot of carry over from the Mustangs to the Arctic Games team.

But there will be separate tryouts in December and January, he noted.

"You can't just say that the Mustangs are going to be the Arctic Winter Games team, that's not fair to some of the kids that maybe didn't tryout for the Mustangs or maybe some that are out of town. We want to give everybody an opportunity to tryout for that team, and rightly so,” Glass said.

The main objective of the coaching staff is the same for both teams: a strong performance at the Tier 3 B.C. Provincial Championships for the Mustangs and at the Arctic Winter Games for Team Yukon.

Operating two separate teams in the same time span poses its own difficulties, Glass noted.

The pool of players in the Yukon is strong, he added, regardless of who makes the team.

The Arctic Winter Games is difficult to judge since the teams Alaska, Alberta and the Northwest Territories send each Arctics varies in skill.

"Sometimes Alaska sends their best players, sometimes their best players are out doing other things, same with Alberta, the team could be super strong, could be average; we expect the Northwest Territories to be much the same team that we faced at the Canada Games last year. They were strong; they beat us twice in Halifax,” Glass said.

"Of course we would like to win the gold medal here at home, but I think more important is to make sure that we're competitive, that we put in a good disciplined effort and that our fans are happy with our performance. Anything medal-wise beyond that will be a bonus.”

Added Glass: "We're looking forward to a good season. So far it's started off well, but there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, so we're not going to get to far ahead of ourselves. We're just going to work hard and see if we can keep it together.”