They didn't get the results they'd hoped for on the score sheet, but the Whitehorse Mustangs midget AA hockey team did come home with a better sense of where they fit in at a higher level.

Under a new plan, the Mustangs competed at the first of many AAA tournaments planned for this season, in Kamloops over the long weekend. Last season, the midgets took in several AA tournaments, finishing first in Abbotsford and second at an international event in Richmond, but with the Canada Winter Games now looming large, the coaching staff decided to up the ante.

After tying one game and losing three in Kamloops, the Mustangs learned some valuable lessons for next time.

'One thing we noticed, is speed-wise, we matched up fine with other teams, so that was a good sign,' said coach Mike Young following a team practice Thursday evening. 'Our conditioning was almost on par with the other teams, so we can improve on that somewhat.

'I felt there were a lot of little mistakes that cost us big time. As a coaching staff, we know what we need to fix now.'

The Mustangs' first game was against Kelowna. While the final score was 6-2, Young said it was much closer for most of the game. The Mustangs were down by just one goal, 3-2, when they got scored on shorthanded. The fourth goal deflated the team, said Young, and 'it just went down from there.'

In their second round-robin matchup, Whitehorse took on Richmond and came away with a 2-2 tie. Next up was Juan de Fuca, the squad which ended up finishing first at the tournament.

Juan de Fuca downed the Mustangs 6-1, but that was the closest anyone came to beating them the entire tournament, Young pointed out. They outscored other opponents by a much larger margin.

Finally, Whitehorse faced off against Ridge Meadows and lost in a heartbreaker. The Mustangs had scored with just 25 seconds left to tie the game, but Ridge Meadows found the back of the net with just 15 seconds left for the win.

Young said the outcome of the final game might have been different if Whitehorse didn't have two of their key players on the shelf due to food poisoning.

'Fraser Love, he's always high energy and wears the other team down. Kaleb Dawe, he's just a huge factor alone.'

They already had a short bench heading into the tournament, because Lowell Johnston and Kevin Pike were at the national soccer championships while Owen MacKinnon was on a school trip.

'Lowell, he's a vet and he's also a great player, so he would have helped the team for sure,' said defenceman Alex McDougall.

McDougall said he felt the team did OK considering the circumstances, but they didn't get enough shots on net. The special teams were also an issue. With the new rules in hockey, he pointed out, there's several penalties per period.

'If you have a good power play, you'll be able to own the game.'

Juan de Fuca's power play was 'tearing us apart,' admitted coach Joe Martin.

'Their coach even warned us, Don't get penalties against us,'' smiled Young.

While the Mustangs actually had the fewest penalty minutes at the tournament, forward Kane Dawe agreed their penalty kill still needs work, as well as their team play.

Martin said most of their penalty killers are new this year, except for Taylor Pasloski, so they didn't really know what page everyone was on. He and Young expect that will improve over the next couple of months.

Martin pointed out the team had only had about two weeks of consistent practice prior to their trip to Kamloops. That's not enough time to get defensive systems, offensive systems and the special teams together, he said.

'If we had two months of practice, or if it was our second tournament, we would have competed much better with those teams.'

While they weren't as successful at the AAA tournament as they were in AA last year, both the coaches and players were adamant AAA is where they want and need to be.

Young said he received an email invitation to a Prince George AAA tournament when he got home, after officials had seen the Mustangs play in Kamloops.

There were 10 or 12 teams from B.C. and one from Saskatchewan at the Kamloops tournament, and the Mustangs finished in the top eight, Martin pointed out.

'If we can prove we belong there, with a lot of things still to work on ... we're going to be fine.'

'We were competing down there,' agreed McDougall. 'We have a month to prepare now before Abbotsford, so we'll be better.'

Kane pointed out the provincial championships will be AA, so Whitehorse should be ahead of the game next March if they continue playing AAA.

'We'll be more prepared.'

The Abbotsford tournament, which will take place Remembrance Day weekend, is the same one the Mustangs took first place in last season, except they were in the AA division at that point.

Meanwhile, Martin and Young will be under the gun again this weekend, along with Mustangs manager Jim Stephens and female hockey coaches Randy Merkel and Ria von Loewenstein. All Canada Games coaches require a Level 3 coaching certificate and this weekend, the five of them will undergo their final evaluation in order to achieve their certificates prior to the 2007 Games.

B.C. Amateur Hockey Association High Performance Evaluator Russ Weber is in town to watch all of them conduct a practice. Weber met Stephens two years ago and has kept in touch.

'This was a golden opportunity for us to be invited by Yukon Amateur to come here and do evaluations,' said Weber, following the Mustangs practice Thursday. 'Our highest priority is to get these guys evaluated.'

Accompanying Weber on his trip to the territory was Glen Carrier, Team B.C.'s director of operations for the Canada Games. Carrier couldn't resist getting a glimpse of where his team will be playing come February.

While they won't have too much down time Weber is evaluating five practices and three games in four days the two men will find the time to take some tours of the various important locations around town to get a sense of what the players will be in for.

They're videotaping it all, so they can show the players when they get back home.

'With 13 other teams playing here during that time, we're trying to seek an advantage over the other teams,' said Carrier.

'The biggest thing I've found is how friendly everybody is, right from when we stepped off the plane at the airport. It started off with the taxi driver, who showed us around downtown.'

Carrier, who is a member of the RCMP, and Weber, who is a former Vancouver police officer, said they've also been very pleased with the hospitality from the local RCMP detachment.

'They've given us tours of businesses, sports shops, places to eat and the facilities. They've just been wonderful.'