Ben Duperreault celebrates his fifth goal of the season on Friday against Red Deer.

For the Moose Jaw Warriors in their first year in the Western Hockey League, every experience is new, but these next two weeks will be a different experience all on its own.

The team is preparing for their ten-day, six-game US Division road trip that will see them play games in two different states, as well as a province, and six arenas that many of them have never been before.

That is unless you're Tyler Brown, the lone American on the Warriors roster.

“I've been every where and watched all the games as a young child,” said Brown, who is from Olympia, Washington and is expected to have family and friends on hand for games during the road trip.

“I've been looking forward to this all year,” he said.  “This is one of the games, or road trips, that I circled at the beginning of the year.  The whole family will be there and it will be a good time.”

Tyler Brown should benefit from more ice time during the second half of his rookie season.

While the road trip will be a homecoming of sorts for Brown, Wilcox native Ben Duperreault will be making his first trip to the US Division in his rookie season with the Warriors.

“It's going to be pretty fun, play a lot of good teams down there, so we've got to work hard and hopefully come away with a few wins,” said Duperreault.

The team will be loading up the bus on Wednesday and starting the 23-hour trek to Portland where they'll open the road trip on Friday against the division-leading Winterhawks.  The long bus ride might seem exhausting, but Duperreault said he's looking forward to it.

“These road trips are fun, you get to hang out with the guys a lot,” he said.  “It will be fun to be on the bus lots and hang out in the hotels and play some good hockey.”

The once-a-year long bus trip is apart of life as a WHL player, which is something both young players are learning about.  They're both half a season into their careers and are becoming more comfortable with each passing practice and game.

“I'm feeling more comfortable out there and I think the coaches are feeling more comfortable putting me out on the ice,” said Brown, who's still looking for his first WHL point after 26 games.  “I'm hopefully looking forward to some more ice time and more responsibility.”

That opportunity could be coming with the trade of Travis Brown getting the Warriors down to seven defencemen.  Brown could be one of the players that benefits from the need to fill the departed Brown's minutes.

“The speed of the game and physicality was the biggest thing to get accustom to,” said the 16-year-old blue liner.  “It took a while and I've just been learning more about how to play in this league.”

Duperreault found his way back onto the score sheet in the Warriors' 4-3 loss to the Red Deer Rebels last Friday.  He scored for the first time in almost a month to bring his goal total to five for the season.  Duperreault said he's had to work to find his game at the WHL level after starring with the Moose Jaw Midget AAA Generals last season.

“I kind of hit the wall there for a bit,” he said.  “Now I'm starting to feel more comfortable, I'm seeing I have more room to skate and I've been finding the areas to get shots and going to the net a bit more.”

For a smaller forward – standing in at just 5-foot-7 – Duperreault doesn't shy away from the gritty areas to score goals, like the one he scored on Friday, which came off a tip in front of the net.

“That's a good place to be in front of the net, it's a greasy area and we just have to keep going there,” he said.

The Warriors are hoping that Duperreault can find that are a bit more often as they get set for their longest road trip of the season.