Tigers prepare to host another division leader

A hard road isn’t getting easy anytime soon for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Tigers will look to shake off a threegame losing streak tonight when they welcome the B.C. Division-leading Victoria Royals to the Canalta Centre for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. While the effort has been where Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston wants over the past few games, he says there’s very little room for error when taking on a division leader — and the Tigers will have seen all three by the end of next week.

“I think guys are working really hard. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate a mistake or two, there’s not a lot of room against the really good teams and we’re playing all of them right now,” said Clouston, whose Tigers play seven games against plus-600 opponents over the course of eight contests. “We can’t be nervous about it either. I think that’s the challenge. When you make some mistakes there’s a tendency to get a little bit nervous and we’ve got to find a way to be aggressive.”

The 18-9-2-0 Royals enter the Canalta Centre riding a two-game losing skid of their own, but the Tigers (15-10-0-0) follow up tonight’s game with Saturday’s Teddy Bear Toss against the Brandon Wheat Kings (17-7-0-1) before heading out east on a road trip — starting with the East Division-leading Moose Jaw Warriors (20-5-0-1) Tuesday.

“We’ve got to clean things up ... We’ve got to be ready to go every night. Our next sixseven games are all against very good teams,” said Tigers defenceman David Quenneville. “And it doesn’t get any easier with our Sask-Manitoba road trip coming up with four in five.”

The road trip also includes games against the Prince Albert Raiders — who are 2-0 against the Tigers this season despite their 10-10-4-1 record — the Wheat Kings and the Regina Pats.

Making matters more difficult, the Tigers released defenceman Cam MacPhee from their roster Wednesday. Clouston says the 6foot, 192-pound blueliner has returned home to “deal with some personal matters.”