On the ice it looked like a battle between David and Goliath as the Bantam Mustangs opened up their season with a win over the Summit Savages in the Whitehorse Recreational Hockey League's B division.

The Mustangs squad showed no signs of intimidation throughout the 44 minute contest, despite all of the bantam players being outsized by their adult opponents.

The bantam team, which is comprised of mostly 13 and 14 year olds, ended up taking the game by an impressive score of 7-4.

"It was a good game," said Bantam Mustangs co-coach Jay Glass. "The boys had to battle for everything and I really liked what I saw with our guys and just the natural ability to compete. A lot of times you don't find out if guys know how to compete until it is too late and I liked what I saw out of many of our players, as far as their raw desire to compete for pucks."

Tuesday's game at the Canada Games Centre drew a large number of spectators both in the stands as well as a number of other locations around the facility. The game even captured the attention of a few people in the Wellness Centre, which over looks the Northwestel rink.

The Mustangs got off to a dominating start, which continued throughout the opening period. Players on the bantam squad used their speed and skill to control the pace of the opening period, generating a number of scoring chances that forced Summit's goaltender to make a few tough saves early on in the contest.

Gibson Pearson got the Mustangs on the board, finding the back of the net at 14:55 on a nice set up by Tyson Glass.

The majority of the crowd in the stands cheered with enthusiasm after Pearson put the puck in the back of the net to give his team its first lead of the game.

The first goal seemed to open up the flood gates and not even two minutes later, Mike Arnold scored a highlight reel goal to give the bantams a 2-0 lead. The goal was unassisted and came after Arnold stole the puck in the Savages' zone, sliding it through the legs of the lone defense and then making one final move to beat Summit's goaltender.

With the goal, Arnold, who is just 12 years old, made history, becoming the youngest player to score in the history of the Whitehorse Recreational Hockey League.

The Mustangs scored three more goals before the end of the first period to take a commanding 5-0 lead into the second frame.

The remaining first period goal scorers for the Mustangs included Scott Meredith, Pearson and Liam Janke.

The Mustangs made a goaltending change in the second period, pulling Patrick Soprovich for Nigel Sinclair-Eckert. Soprovich was great when he had to be in the opening frame, stopping all eight shots that were sent his way.

In the second period, the Summit Savages came alive, scoring less than two minutes into the frame.

After both Brett Roulston and Gage Aird made the contest 7-1, Summit went on a goal scoring run of their own. The Savages scored two goals in less than 15 seconds and then added one more at 8:23.

However, this was as close as the team would get and the game ended with a 7-4 score.

Sinclair-Eckert also had a solid performance in net, equalling Soprovich's save total of eight.

Glass said the team chose to enter the recreational league a few weeks ago and that the added competition should benefit the squad.

"I think this is going to be a real good competition for our team," he said. "We are going to compete every game and we know we are going to take some beatings, but we are going to come to play every night for sure."

Bantam Mustangs co-coach Dave Pearson also agrees that the recreational league will improve the skills of his players.

"It can't get any tougher than playing guys like this," he said. "Our team is going to have to compete everyday and they are going to have to learn how to play as a team, so it is going to be good for us."

Dave said he hopes that Tuesday's win will boost the confidence of the players.

"They are 13 and 14 year olds, they haven't had a heck of a lot of game experience in the first place, but we are really pleased with the team," he said. "We had some really young guys and they played very well tonight."

Glass was also pleased with the bantam's performance on Tuesday.

"We liked what we saw on the ice. There is some things to work on, but that's why we play the game so we can assess what we need to do," he said. "On the other hand, we give that other team a lot of credit they played really good against us. They didn't really try to bully us at all, they competed hard and really showed good sportsmanship out there."

Tyson Glass, who finished the game with one assist, said he wasn't nervous coming into Tuesday's game.

"I saw them play the night before and I thought we would be able to do good against them," he said. "We knew that we had to pass the puck and keep our feet moving all the time and make nice plays and if we did that we thought we would be able to take the game."

He said he is excited about playing in the recreational league this season.

"It's a nice place to play and good competition and I am sure we will do fine if we keep skating hard and doing our thing."

Arnold said it felt good to score his first goal in the recreational league, adding that it was a confidence booster to get the win.

Mark Nassiopoulos, a player on the Summit Savages, said the recreational league will be a good fit for the Bantam Mustangs.

"They did awesome," he said. "They are well coached and they do great breakouts.

They are fast and I think they played really well."

In other Whitehorse Recreational Hockey League news, Yukon Appliance defeated ORC Tree Services 3-1 in their A divisional game on Sunday.

Chris Pollard scored twice for Yukon Appliance, while Pat Kenny netted the squads remaining goal.

Yukon Appliance 3, ORC Tree Services1

Other contributors on Yukon Appliance included Cary Goodman, Chris Dixon and Jason Berkers, who each added an assist.

Ben Wondga scored the lone goal for ORC, which was assisted by Jeremy Kovac.

Boston Pizza/Matco 7, Midget Mustangs 5

Derek Johnstone, Lance Brown and Bryan Curial each scored two goals for Boston Pizza, while Dave Pearson finished with one goal.

Jaxson Glass scored twice for the Mustangs and added two assists, while Drew O'Connor finished with one goal and one assist in the loss.

Dan Legoffe scored the Mustangs remaining goal.