Despite the PeeWee Mustangs not achieving their goal of qualifying for the semi-finals at their most recent tournament in Victoria, the team has never been playing better, which has both co-coaches excited and confident about the rest of the season.

The Mustangs finished with a record of 1-3 at the Victoria AA' Tournament, held from Jan. 3-6, losing two of the games by just one goal, including one that went to overtime.

'We are pleased, we had some good performances,' said Jay Glass, one of the co-coaches on the team. 'Every time any kids in Whitehorse can go out and get into some good, tough competition, win or lose I think they are better and that is certainly the case for our guys. They are better every time.'

The Mustangs began the four-game tournament on a winning note, beating their opponents from Sooke, B.C. by a score of 5-1.

Gage Preece opened up the scoring with only four minutes left in the opening frame, putting the puck in the net on a wrap around after the previous Mustang's shot had missed the net. The goal was assisted by Jarrett Malchow and Tyson Glass.

The Mustangs carried over their strong play into the second period, firing 22 shots on the Sooke netminder and scoring a total of four goals to take a 5-0 lead. Mustang's goalie, Nigel Sinclair-Eckert, faced only three shots throughout the entire second frame.

Goal scorers in the period included Wyatt Gale, who put in two, while Preece and Ryan Chippett each scored once to close out the second. Chippett's goal came with only three seconds remaining in the frame.

Sooke managed to score a goal in the third, despite the Mustangs outplaying the team and generating the majority of the chances. The Mustang's finished with 53 shots on goal, while Sooke was limited to only 17. Defenceman Matthew McCarthy was named Whitehorse's MVP for the game.

The Mustangs' next game was on Friday against the Triport Eagles. The team continued their great play from the previous game in the opening period, outshooting the Eagles 11-3. At the conclusion of the first, Whitehorse had built up a 2-1 lead after Mike Arnold scored his first two goals of the tournament, including one in the last few minutes of play and just 30 seconds after Triport tied it up at one.

Triport fought back in the second, tying the game up for a second time, but the Mustangs battled back to retake the lead on a goal by Tyson Glass. However, this lead would be short-lived and with just a couple of minutes left on the clock Triport put in their third goal of the game.

Two minutes into the final frame, the Eagles took their first lead of the contest, but Arnold's third goal of the game brought the Mustangs right back into it. Just a couple of minutes later Whitehorse scored once again on a hard slap shot by Matthew McCarthy. After another goal by the Eagles, making it 5-5, the Mustangs put in their sixth and final goal of the game, on a nice one-timer by Riley Pettitt after a great pass was made by Jared Steinbach. However, this lead didn't last and Triport was able to score two goals in the final two minutes of play to get the 7-6 win.

The loss forced the Mustangs into a must win situation in their next contest against Bow Valley, Alta.

McCarthy was once again named player of the game for the Mustangs.

For the Mustangs' third game of the competition they went up against quite possibly the best team in the whole tournament. In the two previous games at the event, Bow Valley had scored a total of 25 goals and had allowed only one against.

In the first, Sinclair-Eckert made several great saves to keep the game close for the Mustangs and stopped 18 of the 19 shots fired on net.

Despite the Mustangs skating well in the second period they were unable to generate more than a couple of shots on net and were behind 4-0 after the conclusion of 40 minutes.

In the third frame, Whitehorse managed to limit Bow Valley's shots to just 10, but still surrender two more goals, losing by a score of 6-0 and placing them in the consolation game, which decided the fifth and sixth place in the standings.

For a third straight game McCarthy was named MVP.

On Sunday, the Mustangs played a team from Kerry Park to wrap-up the Victoria tournament. The first period was evenly matched as both squads came out checking and each team finished with a goal as well as nine shots on net. Preece was the lone goal scorer for the Mustangs in the first.

The second period saw the Mustangs take the lead on two occasions. The first coming after Preece scored his second of the game and the team's second goal in the frame occurred when Glass scored in the final ten minutes to give Whitehorse the lead heading into the third.

After Kerry Park drew even with the Mustangs in the third, Preece notched his first hat-trick of the tournament with just two minutes remaining in the game. Kerry Park kept the pressure on and scored with one-minute left in regulation to send the contest to overtime.

As per tournament rules, overtime consisted of 3-on-3 play and less than one minute in, Kerry Park managed to put in a rebound to win the game.

Preece was named the MVP for the PeeWee Mustangs in the 5-4 loss.

Heading into the tournament the Mustangs were focusing on getting better with the play in their own zone as well as becoming more efficient on the power play. Glass said the team made some improvements at the tournament with both.

'We did have some really good power plays out there, not every time, but there were some flashes of some stuff we had been working on, so we were fairly happy with that,' he said. 'We seemed to have a little more confidence and a little more poise with the puck in our own zone, getting away from just panicking. Our defensive play overall was pretty darn good. There were times in those games where we could have pulled away with a timely goal and at times we had the chances, but it didn't go in for us. We were a little bit disappointed over that, but overall we were pretty happy with our progress.'

He said the overtime loss was a good learning experience for the team and they are probably better now for going through it.

'You never want to not win games that you should win, but doing it now is a good thing because every time that happens I think you gain a little bit more game situation experience,' Glass said. 'You can practice all you want, but you can never properly simulate game nervousness and intensity and excitement in practice. This is why we have to get into these situations and that's what kind of makes it fun and these guys are getting better all the time.'

Before the provincials, the Mustangs will compete in one more tournament, which is in February and will be held in Grande Prairie, Alta.