Seven games over the next 12 days, all on the road.  That’s what’s in front of the Moose Jaw Warriors as they set out on their west coast road swing.

The Warriors are off to a 7-1-0-0 start to the season after going 6-1 during their seven-game homestand, which wrapped up over the weekend.

Now out on the road, the Warriors want to kick things off on a winning note when they head into Cranbrook, B.C. to square off with the Kootenay Ice on Tuesday night.

“Playing on the road is a lot different than playing at home, you don’t get the match-ups that you want and there’s nowhere to hide on the road, so you just want to come out and play hard,” said forward Tanner Jeannot.

The strong start to the season has seen positives and negatives for the Warriors, who have been finding ways to win games, but haven’t been able to put everything together for a full 60 minutes yet.

After winning a franchise record 20 games on the road last season, Jeannot is confident that the team will get everything straightened out during their road trip.

“Every game we want to just play our game, play a fast, hard working game, so that’s going to be the mentality this year,” he said.  “We need to work hard, don’t let the other team get too much momentum and if they do, we want to answer back quickly.”

Jeannot added that limiting momentum swings is the biggest key to having success on the road.

“Those home crowds can really give their team some momentum, so you don’t want to have the home team keep it for too long and answer back whenever they get it to make sure that the pressure stays on,” he said.

The Warriors topped Kootenay, 5-2, in their first meeting of the season on Oct. 6 at Mosaic Place.  The Ice are an up-and-coming team that’s still in rebuild mode, but Jeannot said they know that they can’t take them lightly after getting a good test two weeks ago.

“They’re really good in their transition, so we want to make sure that we’re back checking hard as forwards and that the D are keeping pucks to the outside,” Jeannot said.  “Other than that, we just need to play our game, play fast and make the easy plays.”

This will be Jeannot’s final western road swing of his WHL career and he said he’s looking forward to getting on the bus with the team for the next two weeks.

“It’s a great time to get close to the guys and it’s a pretty cool experience to see the country and it’s a different atmosphere in the other divisions,” he said.

The Warriors will open their 3,700-kilometre road trip on Tuesday night against the Ice.  Puck drops at 7 p.m.  You can tune in live to all the action on Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.

After the game, the Warriors will head to Spokane where they’ll face the Chiefs on Wednesday night.