The Bruins shook off an early letdown to score four goals in the third period as Austin rallied to beat Coulee Region 5-2 in Riverside Arena Wednesday.

Early on, the Austin Bruins may have been having flashbacks to last week’s 7-1 loss to the Chill (11-23-5 overall) as they fell down 2-0 in the first six minutes of the game.

“That game left a bad taste in our mouth and it was kind of embarrassing,” Austin’s John Simonson said of the previous loss to Coulee. “Last Saturday we came back with a win and when we got down two goals tonight we stayed calm and it worked out well.”

Simonson put the Bruins (29-6-5 overall) in control when he scored the go-ahead goal on a one-timer from Brandon Wahlin and Simonson was lighting the lamp again before Bruins P.A. announcer Ben Ankeny had even finished calling his name for the first goal he scored.

There was a total of 29 seconds between the two scores.

“That was a pretty quick turnaround. That was pretty cool,” Simonson said.

Both of Simonson’s goals came during a five-minute powerplay for the Bruins after Coulee committed a major penalty. Josh Bretner initially tied the game when he sank in a slap shot from just a couple of steps inside the blue line.

“Once we got that five minute major, everyone was like ‘we’re gonna win this game.’ We just started pounding them in and finished the game,” Bretner said.

Things didn’t start good at all for Austin as Hunter Anderson somehow had a shot bounce off the ice and go over Nick Lehr’s shoulder 31 seconds into the game and Anderson added another score five minutes later to make it 2-0.

Lehr didn’t let the tough start get to him as he didn’t allow a goal the rest of the night and he finished with 27 saves.

“For him to go the rest of the way and not give up anything is great to see,” Austin head coach Chris Tok said. “Even though you’re down 2-0, you’ve got to keep it that way so your guys can battle back.”

Tok was glad his team came back on Wednesday. But he’d like to see the Bruins start a little faster earlier in the game.

“It’s not a prize fight where you’ve got to come out and see how hard you get hit before you play,” Tok said. “We’re good enough to come out and dictate.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Coulee 2 0 0 — 2

Austin 1 0 4 — 5

First period

(C) Hunter Anderson (Sean Lang, Mac Jansen) 0:31

(C) Anderson (Jansen, Brady Riesgraf) 5:31

(A) Jay Dickman (Josh Bretner, AJ Reid) 13:35

Second period

No scoring

Third period

(A) Bretner (powerplay) (Jake Flynn, Riley Colvard) 9:37

(A) John Simonson (powerplay) (Brandon Wahlin, Dickman) 10:43

(A) Simonson (powerplay) (Dixon) 11:14

(A) Colvard (shorthanded) (CJ Smith) 12:41

Powerplays: Austin — 3-for-6; Coulee — 0-for-5

Shots: Austin — 48; Coulee — 29