The new hockey season is just beginning, but if this past weekend's series against their counterparts in Anchorage was any indication, there's certainly plenty of potential this year for the midget Mustangs.

The Yukon's rep hockey team returned home having won all four games of the series and quite convincingly, they might add.

The game scores were 5-1, 6-4, 4-2 and 9-1, respectively.

While it's a little too early to get overconfident, especially considering the Anchorage team was short quite a few players, a look at the score sheet proves the Mustangs do have the depth they were hoping for this year.

While the first line of Drew Pettitt, Chris Gleason and Brad Holm pocketed the majority of the points, goals also came from eight other players in the series. In fact, all but two of the players picked up at least a point, and the two that didn't were defencemen.

'We came back with some positive things about their play and some negative,' said Joe Martin, who coaches the team along with Mike Young.

'We've definitely got depth. We still have guys who were left in Whitehorse during the trip and now we have to decide where to put them in the lineup.'

A couple of the players who didn't make the trip to Alaska were veterans, which initially had the coaches wondering about who might step up in their absence. But by the fourth game, said Young, it was pretty obvious who the key leaders are going to be this year.

One of those leaders is Nick Mauro, a second-year defenceman who stepped up physically as well as on the score sheet. His teammates were still talking about one huge hit he threw in Alaska by last night's practice.

'The whole summer, I was training for Arctic Winter Games and the international games (versus Alaska),' explained Mauro. 'And on my first shift, the coaches put me on the first line and I went out and got a penalty. I felt pretty bad, so I went back to the bench and then decided to do something about it.

'It was just a classic situation where the guy had his head down, looking for the pass, and I had to wake him up a bit. It was probably one of my best hits yet, I'm pretty proud of it. The (Mustangs') bench went nuts as soon as I hit him.'

Mauro said he fed off the energy from that hit for the rest of the game, and he believes the rest of the team did as well. In fact, that hit seemed to set the tone for the entire series.

'(The rest of the team) worked their asses off,' he said. 'Some people really showed me they weren't afraid to play tough. I really feel better about our team after seeing that and I think the coaches feel that way, too.'

The coaches have to feel much more relaxed about their goaltending after the weekend.

While Ian Perrier is the clear number one goaltender, backup Mitch Heynen impressed everyone in his two starts against Alaska, allowing just six goals on 56 shots. Perrier had just two goals squeak past him on 49 shots.

'Mitch saved my ass a couple of times,' smiled Mauro. 'He really stepped up. He was impressive in my point of view.'

More than any other position, a defenceman needs to have faith in the man guarding the net behind him. And after a year in which the goaltending wasn't always consistent, he said it's nice to head into this year feeling confident that either netminder can bail him out on occasion.

'To just know you have someone back there is huge. It gives you more confidence and confidence is a huge part of this game.'

Martin agreed, saying it was great for the coaching staff to see the performance Heynen put in, especially since he wasn't the starter for the bantam rep squad last season and is now in his first year of midget hockey.

'It was great to have him in there,' said Martin. 'He always works hard, does everything the coach wants and more. And he's still learning.'

Heynen called the two contests he played in Anchorage 'exciting,' admitting he was nervous the first game but got it under control after the first few shots.

'I thought they were pretty good, we just had better scorers,' said Heynen, adding most of the shots the defence let through were routine saves. 'I thought we were communicating way better than we had been.'

Goalies have the best seat in the house for analyzing the rest of the game, and while Heynen heaped praise on his teammates, he also recognized the things which still need work, like the special teams (penalty kill and powerplay).

'Our powerplay, for sure,' agreed Young.

The one other thing that needs work, said Martin, is the breakouts in their own end, starting with the defence.

'We really need to improve our defensive breakouts through the neutral zone,' agreed Mauro. 'But that's something we worked on all practice today, so hopefully, it will get better.'

While many people in the Yukon don't really count Alaska as the U.S., Mauro said the series was still an international one to him, with the Mustangs representing Canada. That's something Mauro takes seriously, and he was proud that they came away with all four wins.

The two teams will meet again when Anchorage travels to Whitehorse next month, for the second half of a home-and-home series. Martin expects they will have a full roster this time around and perhaps a bit more fire, though he still thinks the Mustangs are stronger.

'It's a bit of a rebuilding year (for Anchorage),' explained Young. 'So they're a little bit younger, but they never stopped competing. I give them full credit for that.'

Young is hoping the community will show up in full force for the Alaska games next month, which will be held at Takhini Arena.

'We're hopeful we can honour them with a couple of sellouts. They'd really appreciate that. Even if it's all Whitehorse fans, they just love the atmosphere playing here.'

Before the Mustangs can think ahead to Alaska, they have an important trip to Abbotsford, B.C., for their first tournament of the year at the beginning of November.

Martin expects the style of hockey will be a lot different than the recent games in Anchorage, pointing out the teams in Abbotsford won't be full of 15- and 16-year-olds either.

'They'll be a lot bigger club than the Anchorage team, and even if they do have some guys who are 15 and 16, they'll have a lot more experience. And they'll have the maximum number of players.'

'It will be more do or die hockey, because it's a tournament,' added Young. 'If you lose, you're out basically.'

Losing isn't something this year's midget Mustangs are accustomed to yet, and they'll hope to keep that trend going next month.