When the Whitehorse Northern Cross Mustangs midget AA rep hockey team stepped off the bus in Penticton this past weekend for a five-game series, they were without several key players on the roster.

Without their starting goaltender, without their captain, and without one of their top-line forwards, as well as five more regulars, the Mustangs could have been forgiven if they just weren't up to the challenge.

In fact, considering they were up against four tough AAA teams one of which featured players from places like Scotland and Austria, as well as the United States and Canada the Mustangs could have conceivably just laid down and surrendered.

After all, the weekend series wasn't a championship, there were no medals or trophies to be handed out. It was just for the experience, for fun.

But instead of giving up, they went a long way toward proving what everyone has been saying for the past years� this is one of the most talented teams to ever come from the Yukon, with an extreme amount of depth and tons of character.

The Mustangs ended up with two wins, two losses and a tie.

'This was another successful trip for us,' said Mike Young, who coaches the team along with Joe Martin. 'I think the main thing is we really wanted to have a lot of fun and take some pressure off the guys on this trip. We wanted to get some chemistry going again and work on a few things. I think we achieved all of those goals.'

The first game for Whitehorse was against the Okanagan Hockey Academy's number two squad. Starting in goal for all five games for the Mustangs was Mitch Heynen, as Ian Perrier did not make the trip to Penticton.

Chris Gleason got the Mustangs on the board first, with two goals in the first period. Taylor Love and Michael Fraser added goals in the second period for Whitehorse and Robbie Stuckey put the icing on the cake in the third, as they beat OHA 5-3.

'(While they are the number two team), there's still quite a bit of skill there,' said Young. 'We felt we were a stronger team and we showed it.'

The Mustangs took on OHA number one in the second matchup, the toughest team in the series. OHA shut out Whitehorse 9-0.

'They had something like six losses all year (in the Okanagan AAA hockey league),' said Young. 'At times, we did go toe-to-toe with them. At other times, we had some bad break downs. But now we know there are some things we need to work on.'

In the third game, Whitehorse faced off against South Okanagan. It was tied 2-2 after one period, with Mustangs goals coming from Tyson Hawkins and Fraser. Whitehorse scored two more in the second, taking a 4-3 lead into the final frame, on goals by Gleason and Shane McHugh. Kaleb Dawe and Gleason hit the twine in the third, as Whitehorse took the game by a final score of 6-4.

'It wasn't the most organized game, but we overpowered them quite a bit, I felt,' said Young.

For their fourth game, the Mustangs took on OHA number one for the second time, this time coming out on the wrong end of a 7-1 score. The lone goal for Whitehorse was potted by Lowell Johnston.

In the final matchup, the Mustangs pulled out a 2-2 tie against Penticton, thanks to an amazing late goal by Fraser, as Young explains.

'It was our fifth game of the weekend and we were really tired. We were down 2-0 going into the third and made it 2-1 with seven minutes left. At the end of the game, we got in some penalty trouble, so we were down 5-on-3, with the faceoff in our end. There were seven seconds left.

'We won the faceoff, got the puck back to (defenceman Dawe), sent our winger (Fraser) up the ice, and the defenceman passed it to him. He took a slap shot from the blue line and scored with point-one seconds left on the clock.'

Stuckey notched the other goal for Whitehorse in the tie.

By the end of the weekend, said Young, the players were tired, bruised and beat up, but they battled hard and proved how much character they have. The mental toughness the team showed, playing that many games in three days, minus so many key players, is impressive, said the coach.

In the absence of captain Nick Mauro, who is recovering from a knee injury, and assistant captain Drew Pettitt, who played at a AAA tournament with the Fort St. John Tracker District Flyers over the weekend, a few players really stepped up.

Young was most impressed by Dawe, who he said 'played absolutely amazing.' Gleason and Ted Stephens also played large roles, he said.

'The biggest player was Mitch Heynen. He played every game and was just awesome.'

The other players missing from the Mustangs were Kane Dawe, Evan Campbell, Jeff Gartshore, Fraser Love and Nick Swizdaryk.

'We're a very deep team, so we can handle missing a few players.'

Having said that, Young certainly doesn't want to make a habit of it, especially not with the Arctic Winter Games and B.C. provincial championships just around the corner. He's hoping to have the whole team healthy and ready to go for AWG when they leave March 4.

The provincials will be held in Whitehorse this year, March 14-18.

With four practices left until provincials, the main goal this season for the Mustangs, Young hopes to work on a couple of things.

'Our power play has been a concern all year. We've been trying different things and nothing has really jumped out as the big answer we're looking for.

'We also need to work on our trap. If we can get a lead and maintain it by using the trap, it will save us a lot of energy, which is important when you're playing a lot of games in not many days, like we will be at AWG and provincials.'