10-bailey funk
Bailey Funk stopped 28-of-30 Wednesday night for his 8th win of the season. Photo taken by Deny Gravel

The Eastman Selects are back in the win column after defeating the Interlake Lightning 6-2 Wednesday night at the Sun Gro Centre in Beausejour.

The Selects started the year off with back-to-back losses losing 2-1 to the Southwest Cougars and the Winnipeg Thrashers this past weekend. Despite only scoring four goals through their first two games of 2014, Eastman was able to get back on track offensivelying against Interlake.

"We had some bounces that went our way in getting six goals, but it was good because we haven't had a lot of puck luck lately," said Eastman's Head Coach Calvin Bugyik. "I think our guys who did the goal scoring should get full marks for their shots and the goals they scored."

Russell Unrau, Scott Petkau, and Brandon Smook each scored a goal while Landon Plett tallied his first hat-trick of the season for the Selects. Travis Kilbrei and Blayze Bonkowski scored for the Lightning.

Bugyik had mixed feelings about his team defensively. He was impressed with how the Selects were able to kill off 11 penalties, but not with the fact that they were put in so many short handed situations.

"We weren't as disciplined as we normally would have liked to be last night," said Bugyik who also saw his team go 1-for-10 on the power play. "Only giving up two goals and limiting their shot total with the among of time we spent killing penalties was another positive for us."

Bugyik says although they were only on a two game losing skid he could tell that their win over Interlake helped loosen up the dressing room. "Some guys were starting to hold their sticks a little tight," he said. "I would say most of the team relaxed a little bit. Hopefully we have a good skate tonight and then head on the road to get a few points."

The (16-9-6) Selects will be spending the weekend in Dauphin, playing back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday versus the Parkland Rangers. This will be the first this season the two teams will face off against one another. Parkland currently sits 10th in the 12 team league with a 9-20-3 record.