Undisciplined penalties. Scrambling against a well-positioned team. And a fellow named Austin Lee.

Such cost the Whitehorse Midget Mustangs a series sweep over the Kelowna-based Pursuit of Excellence (POE) Hockey Academy in the last game of their three-game series at Takhini Arena Saturday night.

Lee went five-hole on Mustangs goaltender Patrick Soprovich for the shootout win after the two clubs battled to a 2-2 regulation stalemate. The POE assistant captain also snapped a low shot blocker side for the game's tying goal off a feed from teammate Hobin Zinck at 5:01 in the third period.

"There was a rebound and a scramble in front of the net,” Penticton, B.C.-native Lee said of the tying goal. "I just let a little wrister go along the ice and it slid in somehow.”

The score line narrowed as the series progressed: the Mustangs took both Friday games, 5-2 in game 1 and 2-1 in game 2.

But the Mustangs momentum dissipated in game 3.

Lee said his shootout goal came off the same move he tries in practice: he deked to one side and slid the puck through Soprovich's pads. It was the third goal of the shootout that the Mustangs' goalie left his five-hole vulnerable. Nathan Cory and Hobin Zinck scored the other shootout goals for the POE Midget AAs.

Defenseman Adrian Hawkings and forward Trevor Hanna made good on the Mustangs first two shootout attempts. But Mustangs forward Tyrell Hope was denied his club's third shootout goal

POE head coach Bill Rotheisler called the win too close for comfort.

"It was a little bit too dramatic for me,” he laughed, "but it's huge for the boys.

"The game was kind of a microcosm of the whole series: we started one way and then got better progressively. It shows good character to be able to come back from a two-goal deficit. Defense is taught pretty well these days and it's tough to get goals back sometimes, and it's tough to get the ball rolling, but you couldn't have asked for a better outcome when you're down 2-0 going into the third period.”

The Mustangs opened the game with goals from forwards Lindsay Meikle (18:12) and Tyler Weins (16:20) in the first.

Play picked up in the second frame with both teams finishing their checks, to say the least. You wouldn't want to be caught skating through the middle with your head down.

A couple things resulted from the period's intensity level.

Whitehorse's Tyson Glass, who plays with the POE and scored the series-opening goal, was injured off a clean hit from Mustang Trevor Hanna after carrying the puck over the blue line.

Glass wobbled as he skated to the bench and was later taken to hospital as a precaution.

The other upshot was a string of roughing penalties – and one for interference – doled out to the Mustangs – six in the second period.

The hometown club was sharp on the penalty kill, scarcely conceding a shot on net.

Whistler, B.C.'s Keesun MacPherson opened the scoring in the third period at 13:03.

The open ice during the 4-on-4 over time benefited neither team until Mustang

Travis Rivest snapped a shot from the blue line that hit the mesh and seemed to loop out.

No goal was called.

"We think it went in the net and came out, but there's no video replay at this level,” Mustangs head coach Jim Stephens said.

Regardless.

"They came to win tonight, they really battled hard, they didn't give up,” Stephens said. "They play very good systems, because they had us bottled up in that second period in our own end quite a bit. We weren't getting a lot of clean shots; I don't think we got a lot of shots in the second.”

Meikle won the series MVP for the Mustangs off a goal and an assist in game two and a goal in game three.

"We really let down in the end. We had the game locked down and let it go, but these things happen,” Meikle said.

Certainly, the Mustangs second period penalty trouble was the only consistent aspect to the Mustangs game 3 performance.

Mustangs' captain Chris Vance said his club's string of penalties helped nothing.

"We didn't play our positions, didn't get the puck out of our own end and we got trapped,” said Vance, who had a goal and an assist in game 2. "They got shots on net and we took too many penalties; we were too tired, I guess.

"(We need to) stay out of the box, keep our mouth shut and just keep playing hockey,” Vance said.

Rotheisler pointed out that both teams were undisciplined in stretches.

The POE nearly matched the Mustangs in second period penalties with four.

"That's just the game,” Rotheisler said. "It was more chippie from both sides. There was a couple points there where we had players that kind of got chippie back.

Luckily enough, they were focused on coming back into the game so they dialed it down a bit. But that's the sport, and you know what, if it's done at a moderate level, it keeps it fun too.

"Hats off to them for playing a more physical game.”

The POE play in the Okanagan Mainline Hockey Association tier 2 league.

Lee said that's gotten the POE accustomed to heavy hitting.

Besides, referee Bud Arnold had the game under control when the play became rough.

"The pace picked up and the physicality picked up, and then in the third it just went back to all puck,” Lee said. "All the games were great games. They were a quality team.”

The Mustangs have less experience playing in a heavy hitting game.

The team plays in the Whitehorse Recreational Hockey League, a no-hitting league.

"It's a big step, for sure,” Meikle said. "We're so used to trying to dangle to playing guys that are really trying hard. It was a big step for the first game especially, getting hit and giving hits, it was different.”

Vance noted that the Mustangs only get the chance to hit when they head Outside for tournaments.

"Going back into hitting, it's hard for some of our first years and second years,” Vance said. "We did pretty good, we jumped in quick.”

Indeed.

The Mustangs looked completely comfortable going head-to-head in the hitting department against the POE.

"It always takes a period to adjust, going from (the recreational league) to hitting, and our guys adapted pretty good,” Stephens said. "They'll go first in on the puck, they're not afraid of the traffic … it's good for the kids to play that style of hockey as midget hockey players, they really need it.”

The Mustangs will head to Lethbridge, Alta., for a tournament in the lead up to the B.C. provincials in March.

Both Stephens and Rotheisler also seemed keen to get the Mustangs to head down to Kelowna for another series.

Rotheisler noted the hospitality he and his team felt while in Whitehorse.

"Hopefully we can invite them down to Kelowna and be able to have maybe our own series in our barn, it'd be nice to be able to give that back.”