Coaches are quick to point out the hardest playoff game to win is the elimination game – the game that sends your opposition home and your team into the next round.

The Eastman Selects won the first two games of their best-of-five opening round series with the Winnipeg Thrashers by scores of 4-2 & 2-1.

The Selects had three chances to advance to the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League semifinals.

Three losses later Eastman’s season was over.

The Thrashers beat the Selects 4-2, 4-3 in overtime and then 7-4 in the fifth and deciding game of their quarterfinal.

“After those first two games, it could have gone either way,” said Eastman head coach Scott Wong. “It was that close. Even in game four, we were up 3-1 and took a pretty bad penalty in my eyes and they scored on it and that was the game changer.”

“When the going got tough the Thrashers just stepped up,” added Wong, “It’s not that we didn’t. We kept battling and battling. I don’t want to say they got lucky but sometimes puck luck is a good thing when you’re throwing pucks towards the net and it bounces off two, three, four things - they probably had three goals like that in the last two games.”

Wong, who worked with an injury depleted lineup since the Christmas break and also lost a couple of players to the Western Hockey League for a period of time, guided his Selects team to a 26-win season and a fifth place finish during his first year behind the Eastman bench.

“I enjoyed my year,” Wong said. “We had a very good season in my eyes but there’s always room for improvement. I would like to continue with the program. I think Eastman will be a strong team for years to come.”